Police hunt for Louvre thieves as France reels from jewelry heist

French authorities raced against the clock Tuesday, intensifying their hunt for the priceless royal jewels stolen from the Louvre, and the thieves whose brazen daylight robbery left the nation reeling.

French authorities raced against the clock Tuesday, intensifying their hunt for the priceless royal jewels stolen from the Louvre, and the thieves whose brazen daylight robbery left the nation reeling.

The thieves made off with nine items of jewelry belonging to members of France's erstwhile royal families. A crown studded with more than 1,300 diamonds was found damaged shortly after the theft on the escape route the four culprits took on a pair of scooters along the bank of the River Seine.

That leaves eight royal jewels that police and investigators are searching for, though experts in art security told NBC News it could already be too late to recover them.

“They stole items that can be easily taken apart, melted down, recut, and sold on the legitimate market with it being very difficult to trace them,” said Erin Thompson of John Jay College, the only full-time professor of art crime in the United States.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in an interview with RTL radio on Tuesday that the stolen items are worth an estimated 88 million euros, or approximately $102 million.