France's justice minister has acknowledged a "failure" in security after a daring daylight robbery at Paris' Louvre Museum left the nation reeling and raised doubts about the safety of its cultural treasures.

"People were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels and give France a terrible image," said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, describing the heist as a major embarrassment for the country.

Four masked thieves, equipped with power tools, stormed the museum's Galerie d'Apollon around 9:30 am on Sunday. Within minutes, they smashed display cases containing irreplaceable jewels, including an emerald and diamond necklace Napoleon gave to his wife, Empress Marie Louise, and escaped on scooters before police could intervene. The entire operation lasted roughly seven minutes.

Authorities say eight pieces of royal jewelry were stolen, among them a diamond-studded diadem once belonging to Empress Eugénie and a sapphire-encrusted necklace that had been worn by Queen Marie-Amélie, France's last queen.

🔴🇫🇷💎ALERTE INFO - Vrai bilan du Casse du Louvre : 8 708 diamants, 34 saphirs, 38 émeraudes et 212 perles dérobés !

Un butin taillé pour la revente au détail...

Diadème en perles et diamants de l’impératrice Eugénie ; Grand nœud de corsage en diamants ; Broche dite «… pic.twitter.com/jXH6OW2LTb

— Gabriel de Varenne (@G_deVarenne) October 19, 2025

The museum remained closed on Monday as investigators examined the scene and reviewed footage. Darmanin told France Inter radio that he was confident police would eventually catch the perpetrators.

Experts, however, warn that time is running out. Chris Marinello, chief executive of Art Recovery International, told the BBC that if arrests are not made soon, the jewels may never be recovered.

"There is a race going on right now," he said. "They are not going to keep them intact, they are going to break them up, melt down the valuable metal, recut the valuable stones and hide evidence of their crime. They may catch the criminals but they won't recover the jewels."

Calculated breach

Police believe the thieves acted with precision and planning. The group reportedly used a truck fitted with a mechanical lift to reach a first-floor window overlooking the Seine. Two of them then cut through the glass with a disc cutter and entered the gallery, threatening guards and forcing an evacuation.

The robbers attempted to torch their getaway vehicle but were stopped by a museum employee.

Laurent Nuñez, the French interior minister, said he was aware of "a great vulnerability" in museum security nationwide. According to French media, an upcoming audit by the Court of Auditors revealed that a third of the rooms in the affected wing had no surveillance cameras.

Read more: Chainsaw-wielding robbers steal jewelry from Louvre in Paris

Heritage assault

President Emmanuel Macron denounced the theft as an "attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history," while Senator Nathalie Goulet called it "a very painful" moment for France.

"We are all disappointed and angry," Goulet told the BBC, adding that early reports suggested the gallery's alarm system may have been malfunctioning. "We have to wait for the investigation in order to know if the alarm was disactivated," she said.

Goulet warned that the stolen jewels could soon enter a money-laundering network. "I don't think we are facing amateurs. This is organised crime and they have absolutely no morals. They don't appreciate jewellery as a piece of history, only as a way to clean their dirty money."

The Louvre's famed collection, visited by millions each year, has now become the scene of one of the most audacious museum robberies in recent memory. As investigators race against time, France faces the grim possibility that pieces of its imperial past may already be lost forever.