More than $100 million worth of crown jewels was heisted from the Louvre this weekend, but what exactly did the robbers steal?

Authorities were racing Monday to reassure the public about security at key cultural sites — and find the jewels stolen from the museum before they can be broken up and melted down.

Thieves used a stolen truck-mounted moving lift to scale the Louvre and steal royal jewels worth over $100 million in a lightning-fast Paris heist.

The French crown jewels robbed from the Louvre museum in Paris are likely lost forever, an art crime expert tells CBS News, even if the thieves are caught.

PARIS (Reuters) -A jewellery heist at Paris' Louvre museum has cast France in a "deplorable" light, Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin said on Monday as opposition politicians criticised the government for what they branded a national humiliation.

The theft of priceless jewels from the Louvre in daylight has sent shockwaves through France, but the country is far from the first to be stung by art thieves.

In what could be the first major break in the investigation of the $102 million jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, police have found traces of DNA on items the thieves left behind in their hasty getaway,