The French crown jewels robbed from the Louvre museum in Paris are likely lost forever, an art crime expert tells CBS News, even if the thieves are caught.

A daring daylight heist at Paris’s Louvre Museum saw thieves steal priceless jewels, forcing the museum to close as police investigate.

Stolen reliquary brooch embodied the continuity between monarchy and empire, between power and faith. Its disappearance marks the vanishing of a tangible link between France’s temporal grandeur and soul as the eldest daughter of the Church.

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.

Masked thieves stole priceless jewels from the Louvre on Sunday morning. The Paris museum has suffered a string of successful art heists, dating back to the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911.

The jewels were stolen from The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum in broad daylight on Sunday, October 19, and here’s all you need to know about them

It took seven minutes for thieves to execute a brazen daylight heist at the famed Louvre museum. Here's how they did it