The daring daylight heist at Paris' Louvre Museum was over in minutes, but it's feared the priceless Napoleonic jewelry taken by a masked gang in Sunday's brazen raid could be lost forever.
After riding on a cherry picker up the museum's facade, the thieves forced open a window about 30 minutes after the museum opened and smashed up display cases in the gilded Galerie d’Apollon where the Crown diamonds from France's long defunct royal families are displayed.
It is not the first time the gallery has been targeted. In December 1976, masked thieves entered the same room through the same window to steal a 19th-century jeweled sword belonging to French King Charles X. It has never been recovered.
After Sunday's smash-and-grab robbery, the gang, which remained at large, escaped the world’s most-visited museum on motorbikes, making off with nine items, including a crown, a tiara, necklaces and earrings.
Here, NBC News looks at what was stolen.
Diamond-encrusted crown, brooch and tiara
Containing more than 1,300 diamonds, Empress Eugénie's crown ranks among the Louvre’s most valuable pieces.
Designed to reflect the grandeur of the Second French Empire, the crown which features a gold circlet topped with golden eagles, was created in 1855 by Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier, one of Paris' most famous goldsmiths at the time, two years after Eugénie’s marriage to Napoleon III.
Alexandre Giquello, president of Paris' well known Drouot auction house, told Reuters it was worth tens of millions of dollars.
Investigators found the crown near the Louvre after it was apparently dropped by the thieves as they made their escape. It was reportedly recovered broken.
Still missing however, is a reliquary brooch set with 94 diamonds. Crafted in 1855, it holds a sacred relic as a symbol of the Empress' Catholic faith, according to the Louvre’s website.
A large corsage bow set with 2,438 diamonds and 196 rose-cut stones was also taken from her collection, along with a tiara containing 212 pearls and nearly 2,000 diamonds, investigators said.
Emerald necklace and earrings
A necklace and matching earrings, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to mark his second marriage to Marie‑Louise in 1810, were also taken by the thieves.
With a striking 13.75-carat oval emerald at its center, the gold necklace is decorated with another 32 emeralds and more than 1,000 diamonds, according to the Louvre's website.
After the fall of Napoleon’s empire, Marie‑Louise passed the set, including a tiara, to a relative, and it remained in her family for generations. The Louvre bought it in 2004.
Sapphire jewelry set
Worn by successive members of the Orléans family, including the last queen of France, Marie-Amélie, a sapphire parure, or a matching set of jewelry, was also taken in the raid.
The necklace, earrings and tiara each feature natural Ceylon sapphires set in gold and surrounded by diamonds.
Although the jewelry bears no hallmarks of any renowned royal jewelers, the Louvre describes this set as a “precious testimony to Parisian jewelry.”
On Sunday, the thieves managed to steal only one earring from this collection, leaving the other one behind in the museum.
