Though located in the Vatican, the world's smallest country, the Vatican Museum housed more treasures than any other place in the world. It would not be an exaggeration to say that any single item in its collection could serve as the crowning treasure of a small museum.
The museum had 300 doors and more than 2,700 keys, managed by ten key custodians. Five were responsible for opening the doors, and five for closing them. Opening all the doors once each day took an hour, while closing them took ninety minutes.
Whether opening or closing, they had to follow predetermined routes. Usually, when visitors entered the museum, the Hall of the Muses, where the "Torso" was displayed, was among the first rooms to be closed or the last to be opened. Anyone unaware of its secrets could easily get lost inside the museum.
Apart from the "high-tech" measures at the entrance, there were no other anti-theft measures inside the museum. The only modern facility was the elevator.
Taking the downward elevator from the Pinecone Courtyard on the second floor would bring one near the Sistine Chapel. After all, that was a passage known only to the staff.
If you had no thieving intentions or greed, then when faced with those precious works of art, you would focus only on appreciating their beauty. That was more effective than any high-tech security system.
There was no bulletproof glass, nor were there any aggressive anti-theft measures. The most heavily secured area was the Vatican Secret Archives underground.
But if an intruder entered with a machine gun and began spraying bullets, neither the Swiss Guard nor the priests and nuns could stop it with their flesh and blood. In that case, though, the intruder would be no different from Napoleon's army or the Protestants who