RIGHT SPEAK: Daring Louvre Heist Could Have Been Commissioned by a Collector, Officials Say; Everything We Know About the Louvre Jewelry Heist

Daring Louvre heist could have been commissioned by a collector, officials say:

The crew of chainsaw-wielding thieves who brazenly robbed the Louvre of priceless jewels in the highest-profile museum theft in living memory may have been hired, officials said.

Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said authorities are investigating whether the heist was commissioned by a collector.

“We’re looking at the hypothesis of organized crime,” she told BFM TV, adding that it could be professionals working on spec for a buyer.

If a collector was behind Sunday’s daring raid, there is at least a good chance that the stolen pieces would still be in a good state once they’re tracked down and retrieved, Beccuau said.

The jewels could also be used to launder profits from other criminal enterprises, according to the prosecutor.

“Nowadays, anything can be linked to drug trafficking, given the significant sums of money obtained from drug trafficking,” she said.

Investigators were keeping all leads open but foreign interference had been largely ruled out in the case, Beccuau insisted.

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the probe had been entrusted to a specialized police unit that has a high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies.

The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, said it would remain closed on Monday after Sunday’s hit — which took just a matter of minutes.

Masked thieves disguised as construction workers robbed the Paris museum Sunday morning in front of visitors and workers.

The trio reportedly used a basket lift to get up to a second-floor window and used mini gas-powered chainsaws to break in, threatening a security guard in the process, Le Parisien reported. --->READ MORE HERE

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Everything we know about the Louvre jewellery heist:

The Louvre Museum in Paris is still closed on Monday while police investigate a brazen heist which targeted France's priceless crown jewels.

Thieves wielding power tools broke into the world's most visited museum in broad daylight, before escaping on scooters with eight extremely valuable items of jewellery.

Here is what we know about the crime which has stunned France.

How did the theft unfold?

The gang reportedly arrived at 09:30 local time, shortly after the museum opened to visitors.

Four suspects arrived with a vehicle-mounted mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) via a balcony close to the River Seine.

Pictures from the scene showed the ladder leading up to a first-floor window.

Two of the thieves got inside by cutting through the window with power tools.

They then threatened the guards, who evacuated the premises, and cut through the glass of two display cases containing jewels.

A preliminary report has revealed that one in three rooms in the area of the museum raided had no CCTV cameras, according to French media.

French police say the thieves were inside for four minutes and made their escape on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38.

This is a "very painful" episode for France, said Natalie Goulet, a member of the French Senate's finance committee.

"We are all disappointed and angry," she said, and it is "difficult to understand how it happened so easily."

Goulet told the BBC the gallery's localised alarm was recently broken, and "we have to wait for the investigation in order to know if the alarm was disactivated".

France's culture ministry said the museum's wider alarms did sound and staff followed protocol by contacting security forces and protecting visitors.

The gang had tried to set fire to their vehicle outside but were prevented by the intervention of a museum staff-member, the culture ministry added.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati told French news outlet TF1 that footage of the theft showed the masked robbers entering "calmly" and smashing display cases containing the jewels. No one was injured in the incident.