Paris’s landmark Louvre museum remained closed on Monday as French police continued its manhunt for the team of robbers who stole eight “priceless” pieces of royal jewellery from the museum on Sunday.

Some 60 investigators are currently investigating the crime, which is thought to have been orchestrated by a team of experienced, possibly “foreign” thieves.

In France, the almost movie-like robbery reignited a row over the lack of security in the country's museums, which the new Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged Sunday was a"major weak spot".

The thieves arrived between 9:30 and 9:40am (07:30 and 07:40 GMT) Sunday, shortly after the museum opened to the public at 9am, a source close to the investigation said.

They used an extendable ladder to access the Apollo Gallery, home to the royal collection, and cutting equipment to get in through a window and open the display cases.

A brief clip of the raid, apparently filmed on the phone of a visitor to the museum, was broadcast on French news channels.

The masked thieves stole nine 19th-century items of jewellery, one of which – the crown of the Empress Eugénie – was dropped and damaged as they made their escape.

Seven-minute raid

The list of stolen items included an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife Empress Marie Louise.

Also stolen was a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugénie, which has nearly 2,000 diamonds; and a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France. It has eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre's website.

The whole raid took just seven minutes and was thought to have been carried out by an experienced team, possibly"foreigners", said Nuñez.

The intervention of the museum's staff forced the thieves to flee, leaving behind some of the equipment used in the raid, said the culture ministry in a statement.

The loot would be impossible to sell on in its current state, said the president of the leading auctioneer Drouot Patrimoine, Alexandre Giquello.

National 'humiliation'

It was the first theft from the Louvre since 1998, when a painting by Corot was stolen and never seen again.

Sunday's raid relaunched a debate over what critics said is the poor security at the nation's museums, far less secure than banks and increasingly targeted by thieves.

In an interview with French radio station France Inter, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said the jewelry heist gave a very negative image of France because of its incapacity of protecting its museums.

"What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist (mechanical lift) in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels," he said.

Sunday's robbery sparked angry political reactions.

"How far will the disintegration of the state go?" said far-right National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella on social media, calling the theft"an unbearable humiliation for our country".

President Emmanuel Macron said on social media that"everything is being done" to catch the perpetrators and recover the stolen treasures.