Where are the Louvre jewels now and can France get them back?

French police are desperately trying to return priceless jewels stolen from the Louvre in a daring daylight heist, but experts warn it may already be too late to save them.

In Paris on Sunday, thieves broke into the world’s most visited museum, stealing eight valuable items before fleeing on scooters in a daring heist that lasted about eight minutes.

Dutch art detective Arthur Brandt told the BBC he feared the jewels may already be “long gone” as they had been smashed into hundreds of pieces.

It is very likely that the pieces were sold for a fraction of their value and smuggled out of France, other experts said.

Mr. Brand believes the group was professional, as evidenced by the fact that they were in and out of the Louvre so quickly.

“You know, as a normal person you don’t wake up in the morning thinking I’m going to be a thief, let’s start with the Louvre,” he said.

“This wouldn’t be their first robbery,” he said. “They’ve done things before, other burglaries. They’re confident and they thought we could get away with this, and they did.”

In another sign that the gang’s professionalism is being taken seriously, a specialist police unit with a “high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies” has been tasked with tracking them down.

Authorities said they suspect the robbery was linked to an organized crime ring. Mr Brand says this means perpetrators are likely to have criminal records and be known to the police.

Police on Monday said a vest and equipment left at the scene had been submitted for analysis. Mr. Brand suggests that DNA evidence would be a likely way to catch the thieves.

Organized crime groups like these usually have two goals, Paris prosecutor Laure Bequo said. “Either acting for a sponsor or receiving gems to carry out money laundering operations.”

Mr Brandt believes it would be impossible for the items to be sold intact and said the theft to order for a private collector was something that only happened in Hollywood movies.

“Nobody wants to touch a piece that hot,” he explained. “You can’t show it to your friends, you can’t leave it to your kids, you can’t sell it.”

Mr Brandt believes the objects will be dismantled and broken up, with the gold and silver melted down and the precious stones cut into smaller stones that will be virtually impossible to trace back to the Louvre heist.

Jewelery historian Carol Woolton, who presents the podcast If Jewels Could Talk and was Vogue magazine’s jewelery editor for 20 years, told the BBC that the robbers had “chosen” the most important gems from the Louvre’s collection.

The “beautiful big flawless stones” are likely to be removed from their settings and sold, she said, except for the crown from Empress Eugenie, which has smaller stones in it and is “too hot to handle”, she added.

This may explain why it was dropped during the escape, along with another item, and recovered by authorities.

Empress Eugenia’s tiara, which was stolen, contains rare natural pearls of very high value, experts say.

Although the items are described as priceless, Ms Woolton expects them to sell for a fraction of their value.

“They will go to someone who is willing to deal with them,” she said. “Everybody’s going to be looking for them — they’re going to take what they can get.”

Exactly how much could they fetch in cash if sold? Asked about the potential value of the recall, Mr Brandt said the chopped parts could be worth “many millions”.

The stolen gems and gold can fetch up to £10m (€11.52m; $13.4m), says Tobias Cormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds, an online jeweller.

He told the BBC the gang would need an experienced expert to remove the gems and a professional diamond cutter to replace the larger recognizable stones.

The smaller stones, which were not easily recognisable, could be sold immediately and although it was difficult to say the exact price of all the stolen stones, the larger ones could be worth around £500,000 each, he said.

“There are at least four of that size, so if you add them all up plus the gold, you’re probably approaching £10m,” he said.

“The diamond and gemstone market is liquid and there are many buyers on the fringes who don’t ask too many questions.”

There are hopes that the objects may reappear intact one day – but those hopes dwindle as the days pass.

There is precedent – the Cartier exhibition at the V&A includes a jewel that was stolen in 1948 before reappearing at auction several decades later.

It is certain that many in France are deeply shocked by the robbery at the Louvre, as they have experienced an emotional attachment to the jewels.

“We don’t necessarily like jewelry because it’s a question of power and it doesn’t necessarily have a good connotation in France,” said Alexandre Léger, head of heritage at French jeweler Maison Vever.

“But inevitably what was stolen belongs to you as much as to me. It belongs to France, so everyone owns a small part of these objects, just as everyone owns a small part of the Mona Lisa.”

“It’s like someone stole our Mona Lisa… Someone stole France.

Additional reporting by Izumi Yoneyama.