Authorities were racing Monday to reassure the public about security at key cultural sites — and find the jewels stolen from the museum before they can be broken up and melted down.

The Louvre museum in Paris announced it would remain closed Monday as investigations continue into Sunday’s extraordinary theft of historic jewelry – and experts say the prospects of recovering the treasures are slim.

In one of the boldest museum robberies in decades, four thieves pulled off a daylight heist at Paris’s Louvre on October 19, stealing priceless royal jewels once worn by Empress Eugénie and Queen Marie-Amélie.

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 precious artifacts snatched from Paris’s Louvre Museum on Sunday include an emerald necklace gifted by Napoleon to his second wife and other priceless jewels.

The morning after thieves broke into the Louvre Museum in broad daylight, making off with its crown jewels, an embarrassed nation is asking itself a question: How could France let this happen?

Taiwan’s National Palace Museum is stepping up security after a major robbery at the Louvre in Paris saw some of France's priceless crown jewels stolen. The museum in Taipei is running more emergency drills and enlisting the help of its K-9 unit to prevent a similar heist attempt.

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.