France, Dec. 29 -- The Interior Ministry recorded 538 cases in 2025, an 11 percent rise from the previous year.

The thefts often involve small churches that are easy to access and poorly protected. Higher gold prices have also increased the value of some of the objects being stolen.

Three men were convicted on Friday for around 30 thefts from churches in northern and eastern France.

They received prison sentences, some of them suspended, after stealing cultural objects with the help of a second-hand dealer.

Hadrien Lacoste, vice president of France's Observatory for Religious Heritage,told RFI the thefts cover different types of crime.

"The theft of collection boxes and donations is what we would call petty larceny," he said. "Then t...