At a Senate hearing, Louvre director Laurence des Cars detailed failures in the Paris museum's security and also confirmed that she had offered to resign but the move was rejected by Culture Minister Rachida Dati.

In a minutes-long strike Sunday inside the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, thieves smashed display cases and fled with priceless Napoleonic jewels, officials said.

Museum heists, particularly ones involving historic and valuable items, have shocked the world and inspired mystery and suspicion for more than a century.

The theft from the Maison des Lumières in Langres is the latest in as string of cultural institution heists in France.

Museum security concerns rise after the latest Louvre robbery, as experts recall other major art thefts, including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's still-unsolved heist from 1990.

The Louvre museum was hit by a brazen daytime jewel heist, forcing the Paris institution to close its doors for a second day in a row.

No security cameras were monitoring the second-floor balcony where thieves gained access to the Louvre to steal historic jewels worth over $100 million, the museum’s director told a French Senate committee hearing.

The Acropolis Museum combined a message of solidarity to the Louvre in Paris with a clear call for the return of the Parthenon Marbles