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French authorities are desperate to locate extremely valuable gemstones stolen from the Louvre in a daring daytime heist, although specialists have warned it could be past the point of recovery to get them back.

Within the French capital over the weekend, thieves entered by force the world's most-visited museum, making off with eight valued items before escaping on scooters in a bold robbery that lasted approximately under ten minutes.

Expert art detective an expert in the field stated publicly he feared the jewels could be "dispersed", after being taken apart into hundreds of parts.

Experts suggest the stolen jewels may be disposed of for a fraction of their worth and smuggled out of the country, other experts indicated.

Potential Suspects Behind the Heist

The thieves were professionals, as the detective stated, shown by the fact they were inside and outside of the Louvre so quickly.

"Realistically speaking, for an average individual, you don't wake up overnight thinking, I will become a criminal, choosing as first target the Louvre," he noted.

"This won't be the first time they've done this," he said. "They've committed previous crimes. They are confident and they calculated, we might get away with this attempt, and went for it."

As further evidence the professionalism of the group is treated as important, an elite police team with a "proven effectiveness in resolving major theft cases" has been assigned with finding them.

Police officials have said they believe the theft is connected to an organised crime network.

Organised crime groups of this type typically have two objectives, French prosecutor a senior official explained. "Either they operate on behalf of a financier, or to obtain expensive jewelry to carry out financial crimes."

The expert believes it seems impossible to market the jewels intact, and he said stealing-to-order for a specific client represents a situation that mainly exists in fictional stories.

"No one desires to handle a piece this recognizable," he explained. "It cannot be shown publicly, it cannot be passed to family, there's no market for it."

Potential £10m Value

The expert thinks the objects will be dismantled and broken up, along with gold elements and silver melted down and the precious stones re-cut into less recognizable pieces that will be extremely difficult to connect to the museum theft.

Jewellery historian a renowned expert, host of the digital series focusing on gemstones and was the prestigious publication's gemstone expert for two decades, explained the thieves had "cherry-picked" the most valuable jewels from the Louvre's collection.

The "beautiful large exquisite jewels" would likely be removed from the jewelry pieces and disposed of, she explained, excluding the headpiece of the French empress which features less valuable pieces incorporated within it and was considered "too dangerous to handle," she explained.

This might account for the reason it was abandoned while fleeing, along with one other item, and located by officials.

The imperial headpiece that disappeared, contains extremely rare organic pearls which command enormous prices, authorities indicate.

Although the artifacts have been described as being priceless, the historian anticipates they to be sold for a fraction of their worth.

"They're destined to buyers who is willing to handle these," she stated. "Many people will seek for these – they'll settle for what they can get."

The precise value might they bring as payment upon being marketed? Regarding the estimated price of the loot, the expert stated the cut-up parts may amount to "multiple millions."

The precious stones and removed precious metal may bring up to a significant sum (over eleven million euros; thirteen million dollars), according to Tobias Kormind, chief executive of a prominent jeweler, an internet-based gem dealer.

He told the BBC the thieves must have an experienced professional to extract the stones, and a professional diamond cutter to alter the larger recognisable stones.

Less noticeable gems that were harder to trace could be sold quickly and while it was hard to tell the precise value of all the stones stolen, the larger ones may amount to approximately £500,000 per stone, he noted.

"There are at least four comparable in size, therefore combining each of them along with the gold components, it's likely coming close to the estimated figure," he concluded.

"The gemstone and gemstone market has buyers and plenty of customers operate within gray markets that won't inquire too many questions."

Some optimism remains that the artifacts may be found intact in the future – but those hopes are fading with each passing day.

There is a precedent – a jewelry display at the London museum features a piece of jewelry taken decades ago before reappearing in a sale several decades later.

Definitely includes the French public feel profoundly disturbed by the Louvre heist, expressing a personal connection to the jewels.

"We don't necessarily appreciate jewelry as it symbolizes an issue of privilege, and which doesn't always receive favorable interpretation within French culture," Alexandre Leger, curatorial leader at Parisian jewelry house the prestigious firm, stated