High visitor numbers and dwindling funds for overhauls may have made the landmark museum unexpectedly vulnerable.

A hunt is under way to find the four thieves before the jewels - which once belonged to French royals - vanish for good.

PARIS (Reuters) -A jewellery heist at Paris' Louvre museum has cast France in a "deplorable" light, Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin said on Monday as opposition politicians criticised the government for what they branded a national humiliation.

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

A minute-by-minute look at the daring Louvre robbery, using maps, photos and video to unravel how one of the world’s most famous museums was breached.

French police stepped up the hunt Tuesday for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum in a spectacular daylight robbery.

Myles Connor walked into the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and walked out with a Rembrandt painting in the 1980s.

A manhunt is underway to find the four thieves before the jewels - which once belonged to French royals - are broken up.