E6Zo TIL there is a ~11,000 sq ft underground vault on a Norwegian Island that “aims at safeguarding the world’s most important plant genetic resources for food and agriculture with a maximum level of security” free of charge.
Z0ao TIL to open the vaults at the Bank of England you need a key which is 3 feet long
1BAd TIL there is a secret room inside Mt. Rushmore that contains porcelain enamel panels with text from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights sealed in a teakwood box, placed in a titanium vault, and sealed shut under the weight of a 1,200 pound granite capstone.
mXRE TIL there is a Seed Vault that protects seeds from all sorts of natural and man-made disasters; essentially a food insurance policy in case the world goes to hell.
Xm8j TIL Michael Jackson has “hundreds” of unreleased songs that were discovered in his vault after he died
kV1B TIL in Svalbard, there is a vault containing over 800,000 seed samples to preserve the worlds food crops in case of human or natural disaster.
OAVR TIL that when it came time to remove the support beams from newly erected cathedral vaults in the Middle Ages, they had about a 50% failure rate.
yJB8 TIL that there is a second “Mona Lisa” painting held in a secret vault in Switzerland also thought to have been painted by Leonardo DaVinci that shows a much younger version of the female subject
aWmb TIL that the Wu-Tang Clan released a secret album, of which they only made one copy. It is cased in silver and nickel and sits in a vault in Morocco. It runs $5 million.
aWyJ TIL Italy’s Credem Bank takes parmesan cheese from local producers in exchange for cheap loans (charging 3-5% interest, depending on quality) & a fee ensuring the cheese matures properly (2yrs) in the bank vault (cheese is sold if the loan defaults). 430,000 parmesan wheels ($200M+) are stored there