Officials say suspects used a truck-mounted basket lift and power tools to carry out the brazen Sunday morning theft at the world’s most-visited museum.

The French crown jewels robbed from the Louvre museum in Paris are likely lost forever, an art crime expert tells CBS News, even if the thieves are caught.

A new social media advertisement by IKEA poked fun at the recent Louvre heist in which thieves stole jewels valued at more than $100 million. Newsweek has reached out to IKEA for comment via email.

PARIS (AP) — It was shortly after the stunning heist of the crown jewels at the Louvre when Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus caught in his frame a dapperly dressed young man walking by uniformed French police officers, their car blocking one of the museum gates. Instinctively, he took the shot.

Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told the BBC he feared the jewels may already be "long gone", having been broken up into hundreds of parts. It is highly likely the pieces will be sold for a fraction of their worth and smuggled out of France, other experts have said.

The theft of French crown jewels overshadowed the robbery of some $100,000 worth of historical coins from a museum dedicated to philosopher Denis Diderot.