The hunt has begun: the day after the spectacular burglary at the Louvre Museum in Paris, French police are on Monday on the trail of four criminals who made off with eight "French crown jewels."

Bearing the hallmarks of organized crime, this broad daylight robbery in the world's largest museum, which receives nearly 9 million visitors a year and houses 35,000 works over 73,000 m2, had an international impact.

It also sparks a political controversy and rekindles the debate on the security of French museums, which present "great vulnerability," acknowledged Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.

"We failed," French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Monday on public radio France Inter, since criminals were "capable of putting a freight elevator" on the public highway, "of making people get on it in a few minutes to retrieve priceless jewels and of giving a deplorable image of France."

Shortly after opening on Sunday, around 9:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m. GMT), a basket was wedged beneath a balcony. After cutting a window with an angle grinder, two burglars entered the Apollo Gallery, commissioned by Louis XIV to exalt his glory as the Sun King. The room houses "the royal collection of gems and the Crown Diamonds," which numbers around 800 pieces.

They opened two display cases with a grinder, a scene partially filmed on a cell phone, probably by a visitor according to a police source, and broadcast by the news channels. With their faces masked, they stole nine pieces, all from the 19th century.

A criminal visible in the footage is wearing a yellow vest. However, investigators, who also have access to CCTV footage, have a yellow vest in their possession, recovered after it was discovered by a "citizen," according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

Seven minutes flat

The crown of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III (Emperor from 1852 to 1870), was abandoned by the criminals as they fled. Its condition is "under examination," according to the Ministry of Culture.

But eight pieces of "inestimable heritage value" were taken away, according to the authorities. Among them were Eugenie's tiara, which contains nearly 2,000 diamonds, and the necklace from the sapphire parure of Marie-Amélie, the last queen of France (wife of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French from 1830 to 1848), and Hortense de Beauharnais (mother of Napoleon III). It is composed of eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre's website.

The operation lasted seven minutes. It was carried out by "experienced" burglars who could be "foreigners" and "possibly" known for similar crimes, according to Laurent Nuñez.

According to the Ministry of Culture, thanks to the intervention of museum agents, "the criminals were put to flight, leaving behind their equipment."

Stolen coins are difficult, if not impossible, to resell as is. According to Laure Beccuau, there are two hypotheses: the perpetrators may have acted "for the benefit of a sponsor" or may have wanted to obtain "precious stones to carry out money laundering operations."

Around sixty investigators

This theft, the first recorded at the Louvre since the 1998 theft of a painting by French painter Camille Corot that has never been found, has reignited the debate on museum security. Less secure than banks and containing gold and silver treasures, they are the target of criminal groups.

"How far will the disintegration of the state go?" asked the president of the far-right National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, denouncing an "unbearable humiliation" for France.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the alarms, located on the gallery's exterior window and on the two high-security display cases, were triggered. They "were in operation" and the security post "received them," said Laure Beccuau. The question remains as to whether the guards heard these alarms and whether they actually "sounded" in the room where the theft occurred.

"We will find the works and the authors will be brought to justice," French President Emmanuel Macron promised on X on Sunday.

Around sixty investigators from the Paris judicial police's anti-banditry brigade (BRB) and the Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC) are mobilized.