The jewelry taken from the Louvre Museum in Paris is estimated to be worth 88 million euros ($102 million), according to a French prosecutor, as the search continues for the stolen treasures.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told French radio station RTL the value of the loot taken in Sunday?s daylight robbery had been estimated by the museum?s curator.

?This sum is indeed spectacular, but we must remember that this damage is economic. But it has nothing parallel or comparable to the historical damage caused by this theft,? she said.

Around 100 investigators are involved in the manhunt to track down the criminals who made off with artifacts from the French crown jewels, dating from the Napoleonic era, she said.

Experts fear that the prospects of recovering the jewelry are slim. But Beccuau warned that the thieves may struggle to obtain the loot?s value if they chose to dismantle the pieces to resell the jewels or melt down the metals.

The Louvre remained closed on Tuesday, in accordance with its scheduled opening times, but is due to reopen on Wednesday. The Apollo Gallery targeted by the thieves will remain closed.

How did the heist happen?

The thieves used a truck-mounted ladder to gain access to the Apollo Gallery, one of the most ornate rooms in the Louvre, through a window.

Armed with tools including an angle grinder and a blowtorch, they targeted two high-security display cases.

Paris prosecutors say it took the robbers four minutes to break into the gallery, snatch the jewelry, and leave.

?At 9:34 a.m., half an hour after opening, two men wearing yellow vests broke a window,? the prosecutor?s office said in a Monday statement. The robbers ?left at 9:38 a.m,? and left on two scooters ?along the banks of the Seine.?

The entire operation lasted just seven minutes, authorities said.

What was stolen?

Among the items taken from the Louvre was a diamond and sapphire jewelry set including a tiara and necklace worn by Queen Marie-Am?lie and Queen Hortense.

The diadem ? a jeweled headpiece worn by royalty ? features 24 Ceylon sapphires and 1,083 diamonds that can be detached and worn as brooches, according to the Louvre.

Also stolen was an emerald necklace and earrings set that was a wedding gift from Napoleon to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria, in March 1810, containing 32 intricately cut emeralds and 1,138 diamonds.

Eight of the nine items taken remain unaccounted for.

Wider implications for France

French Justice Minister G?rald Darmanin admitted that the Louvre heist exposed security failings at the museum.

?One can wonder about the fact that, for example, the windows hadn?t been secured, about the fact that a basket lift was on a public road,? he said on France Inter radio. ?What is certain is that we have failed.?

?The French people all feel like they?ve been robbed,? he added.

Elaine Sciolino, author of ?Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World?s Greatest Museum,? emphasized the significance of a robbery at the Louvre, which was originally built as a fortress before becoming a palace for the French royal family.

?This attack really is a dagger into the heart of France and French history,? she said.

How is the investigation going?

Investigators do not have any solid leads as to who was behind the heist but are slowly amassing a body of evidence, a law enforcement official in France who has been briefed on the ongoing investigation told CNN on Tuesday.

The thieves were not able to burn the truck they used for the break in, so investigators are combing it for any traces of DNA, the official said.

As part of this process, investigators have had to build a tent around the truck so they can fume it to bring forth fingerprints, which has slowed down the process slightly, the official said.

On Tuesday, investigators recovered one of the two scooters the thieves used to get away, according to the official. They have also retrieved a helmet believed to have been worn by one of the thieves, the official added.

Will the jewelry be recovered?

Natalie Goulet, a Centrist member of the French senate, told CNN on Monday that she believes the jewelry has probably already been taken out of the country.

?I think that the pieces are already abroad,? she said. ?I think it?s lost forever.?

Goulet also appeared on BBC Radio about the prospects of recovering the jewelry, replying: ?None.?

?The jewelry will be cut up and sold and used as a money-laundering system,? she said. ?It?s the easiest way to clean dirty money.?

The robbery was probably linked to organized crime, Goulet said.

?They have absolutely no morals,? she said. ?They don?t appreciate the jewelry as a piece of history but the way to clean their dirty money.?Goulet added that she was ?very, very pessimistic? about the prospects of recovering the jewelry.

Sciolino, the author, was similarly downbeat.

?They can be dissembled, they can be cut, they can be sold on the black market,? she told BBC Radio. ?It is unlikely that all of them are going to be recuperated in the shape that they are now.?Christopher Marinello, the founder of Art Recovery International, said that if the thieves are just looking to get cash out as quickly as possible, they might melt down the precious metals or recut the stones with no regard for the piece?s integrity.

?We need to break up these gangs and find another approach, or we?re going to lose things that we are never going to see again,? Marinello told CNN.

Past heists

The most well-known robbery at the Louvre took place in August 1911, when Leonardo da Vinci?s Mona Lisa was stolen off the museum?s walls by handyman Vincenzo Peruggia.

It was 24 hours before anyone even noticed the Mona Lisa was missing, with artworks often removed to be photographed or cleaned.

A bungling police investigation then dragged on for two years before the painting was recovered in December 1913, making it the most famous artwork in the world.

More recently, a work by French painter Camille Corot was stolen from its frame in 1998 and has never been found.

More recent heists at other European museums include the theft of four ancient gold artifacts from a museum in the Netherlands in January.

Robbers used explosives to break into the Drents Museum in Assen, making off with three gold bracelets dating from around 50 BC, as well as the 5th-century BC gold Helmet of Cotofenesti, a historically important artifact on loan from the National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest. (CNN)

Update news