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louvre have transferred some of their most valuable possessions jewelry According to the Bank of France French Radio RTL exposed the famous after an audacious robbery in broad daylight last week archiveSecurity vulnerability of.
The transfer of some precious objects from the museum’s Apollo Gallery, which houses the French crown jewels, was carried out on Friday under secret police guard, RTL said, citing unnamed sources.
The Bank of France, which stores the country’s gold reserves in a giant vault 27 meters (88 ft) below ground, is just 500 meters from the Louvre on the right bank of the Seine River.
The Louvre and the Bank of France did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The Louvre reopened on Wednesday, three days after thieves made away with an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million) worth of historic jewels in a spectacular heist that has raised urgent questions over security lapses at the museum.
Visitors queued to enter through the Louvre’s glass pyramid for the first time since Sunday’s brazen robbery, in which hooded attackers smashed a second-floor window using a stolen Mowers lift before making off with jewels from the royal collection.
The Galerie d’Apollon, the ornate gilded hall that was looted, is closed.
Amid growing frustration in France that no senior official has taken responsibility, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said there were clear security failures and Culture Minister Rachida Daati had launched an administrative investigation.
“There was a theft in the Louvre, some of the most precious jewels of France were stolen. So obviously it’s a failure, I can’t say anything else,” Nunez told Europe 1 radio.
But he said that “the alarm system worked perfectly, it activated as soon as the window was hit. The police were informed, and within three minutes they were on the scene. The whole system worked, it didn’t fail, but what happened happened.”
He declined to comment on the police raid, but said he was confident the culprits would be found.
President Emmanuel Macron has announced a six-year renovation of the Louvre, which will include funding for security upgrades. Asked on RTL radio whether state budget cuts have led to security lapses in French museums, Pierre Moscovici, head of France’s national audit office, said this was not the case for the Louvre.
“It’s massively endowed, there are sponsorships, really, the Louvre is not without resources.”
Built in the late 12th century, the Louvre Palace was the official residence of the kings of France until Louis XIV abandoned it for Versailles. In 1793, four years after the French Revolution, it was converted into a museum to house the royal art collection.
It is now the most visited museum in the world, with 8.7 million visitors last year. It hosts the world’s most famous paintings, the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo statue, as well as countless other Old Masters.