“The transfer of some valuable items from the Apollo Gallery, which houses the French coronation jewels, took place on Friday under secret police escort” – RTL radio quoted by Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources.
The Bank of France, which holds the country's gold reserves in a huge vault 27 m undergroundis located just 500 m from the Louvre, on the right bank of the Seine.
The Louvre and the Bank of France did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The agency reminds that on October 19, thieves stole from the Louvre's collection eight valuable works with an estimated value of $102 million.exposing security vulnerabilities as they broke into the world's most visited museum, using a crane to smash an upstairs window during opening hours. They escaped on motorcycles.
France will not receive compensation for the theft of jewelry from the Louvre
The French Ministry of Culture said the country would not receive financial compensation for the lost works, which have “invaluable heritage and historical value.”
“The state acts as its own insurer when the works of national museums are in their usual storage places.” – said the ministry's spokesman in a statement quoted by “Le Parisien”. He added that this decision results from “high insurance costs when the number of claims is low.”
Typically, the state is responsible for works from a national collection, while museums only purchase insurance when works are moved or loaned. The Ministry emphasized that in such cases the insurance value is “very often higher than the purchase value of the work.”
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Private galleries – such as the Louis Vuitton Foundation or the Pinault Collection – normally use commercial insurance policies.
