Police continue to search for the criminal gang behind the brazen robbery targeting France’s crown jewels

The financial loss from France’s most dramatic heist in decades has been put at nearly €90m as the head of the Louvre prepared to face difficult questions over how thieves were able to steal priceless jewellery in broad daylight.

As police continued to search for the criminal gang behind the brazen robbery on Sunday, the Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told the broadcaster RTL that the museum’s curator had estimated the losses at about €88m (£76m).

Justice minister says ‘we have failed’ after thieves take seven minutes to steal priceless jewels from museum

The French government is under increasing pressure over museum security as police continued to search for thieves who took seven minutes to steal priceless jewels from the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum.

“What is certain is that we have failed, since 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,” the justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, told France Inter radio on Monday.

Necklace given by Napoleon to his wife among items taken from Paris museum in highly professional daylight robbery

French police are hunting four thieves who carried out a highly professional daylight robbery on the Louvre, breaking into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms and escaping with eight pieces of “priceless” historic jewellery, including a necklace given by Napoleon to his wife.

The world’s most-visited museum was suddenly closed for the day on Sunday after the break-in targeted pieces in two glass cases in its Apollon gallery, where the French crown jewels are held.