Irrespective of how practical thermic lances are, the likelihood that there would be something more valuable inside the safe than the safe itself was low (that’

Irrespective of how practical thermic lances are, the likelihood that there would be something more valuable inside the safe than the safe itself was low (that’s also confirmed now by the actual contents of the safe) and that’s probably why destructive opening of the safe was never even considered. The safe itself was the exhibition piece that was valuable to the museum. Destroying it just to get at its unknown but probably boring contents would have been pointless.