Five days after the spectacular burglary in the Louvre's Galerie d’Apollon, a portion of the non-stolen jewels was transferred under police escort to the Bank of France. This secure operation aims to protect the precious items while awaiting an evaluation of the museum's security system. Paris prosecutor assures thieves will not fetch the estimated value of the loot.
On the morning of October 24, 2025, a portion of the Louvre Museum's non-stolen jewelry collection, along with some of its most precious pieces, was transferred to the Bank of France's main vault. According to a police source confirming RTL information, the operation was conducted under motorized escort by the Compagnie des transferts, escortes et de protection (COTEP), a unit of the Direction de l’ordre public et de la circulation (DOPC). The route covered only a few hundred meters between the museum and the bank.
This discreet and highly secure maneuver follows the burglary carried out on October 19, 2025, by a commando of four criminals using a forklift truck in the Galerie d’Apollon. Pending a full evaluation of the security system and the investigation's conclusions for 'organized gang theft' and 'criminal conspiracy', authorities prioritized zero risk.
The collections were deposited in a vault buried 26 meters underground, where France's gold reserves and several national treasures rest, including Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks valued at over 600 million euros. The stolen loot is estimated at 88 million euros, but Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau stated in a JDD interview: 'the thieves will not get that sum.' She added: 'the more time passes, the harder it will be to recover the jewels, and intact at that,' while praising 'the high specialization of the police services involved.' The investigation now involves a hundred investigators, up from an initial sixty, with over 150 trace samples collected and ongoing analysis of museum and prefecture surveillance footage. The magistrate described it as 'a titanic task.'