The Louvre jewellery heist, where $157 million of artefacts were stolen in a brazen daylight robbery, may have been an inside job, according to detectives.
Last weekend, thieves broke into the world-famous museum in Paris, and stole priceless jewels after using a freight lift to break into a second-storey window.
The raid lasted just four minutes, with the thieves then making their escape on motorcycles.
It's a heist that experts say would have required 'military style precision', and sources close to investigators in Paris believe the plotters may have had help from someone on the inside.
According to The Telegraph, the gang was given information about the Louvre's security system ahead of the raid.
"There is digital forensic evidence that shows there was co-operation with one of the museum's security guards and the thieves," the source said.
"Sensitive information was passed on about the museum's security, which is how they were aware of the breach."
It is a major claim against security at the museum, which had a widescale security overhaul in January, which included a new command post and expanded camera grid.
However, the cultural ministry of France said it was still being rolled out, and the director of the Louvre earlier this week admitted there wasn't CCTV coverage in the area where the heist took place.
"Unfortunately, on the Apollo gallery side, the only camera installed faces west and therefore does not cover the balcony affected by the break-in," Laurence des Cars told a French Senate Committee.
The culprits still haven't been identified, and there are now grave fears the priceless jewels, some dating back to the Napoleonic era, will never be recovered.
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Among the stolen items were a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte's second wife; a reliquary brooch; Empress Eugénie's diadem; and her large corsage-bow brooch – a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.
This is because experts believe the jewels will be broken down.
"I think that the pieces are already abroad," Natailie Goulet of the French Senate said. "I think it's lost forever."
Christopher Marinello, the founder of Art Recovery International, believes the gang may look to break them down or recut the stones without regard for their rarity.
It led to him issuing a warning: "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."
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