An expert in recovering stolen and looted artwork has urged French authorities to issue a reward for the return of imperial era jewels stolen in broad daylight from the Louvre Museum in Paris.
The masked robbers stole nine 19th-century pieces of jewellery, one of which - the crown of the Empress Eugenie - was dropped and damaged as they made their escape.
Speaking to RTÉ's News At One, Christopher Marinello described the incident as shocking and horrific.
"I think they should (issue a reward). The prosecutors in Paris should come out and say 'look, if you break these items up, we’re going to charge you with a more serious crime, more jail time than you would get if these were to remain intact’.
"There needs to be some sort of an incentive to have these pieces remain intact," he said.
Mr Marinello added that museums it was usually smaller museums that are targeted by robbers, not those the size of the Louvre.
He said robbers target museums to steal the jewellery, diamonds and gold in their collections, before breaking them up in order to cover their tracks.
"They completely disregard the cultural importance of the piece and only look at it as metal and stones."
Mr Marinello described it as a race against time for authorities to identify the culprits and recover the jewels before they are broken up and made untraceable in anticipation of being resold.
He added that if this happens, the pieces will be lost forever because they can no longer be studied or be available for future generations to view.
"Museums and prosecutors worldwide need to treat these crimes as cultural heritage terrorism.
"As intact, historical items they are priceless," he said.
This course of action would be "very lucrative", Mr Marinello said, adding that the robbers would try to find jewellers in Israel, India or Belgium who would be willing to take a larger stone and break it up into smaller ones.
If the thieves approached any major auction house in an attempt to sell the stolen jewellery they would be spotted instantly, he said.
Mr Marinello described the heist as an "unfortunate lapse in security" despite it being very well planned and very well executed by the thieves.
The Louvre was undergoing construction work, which the robbers took advantage of in order to bring the tools and machinery they needed to pull off the robbery, he added.
Mr Marinello said that criminals know these items are worth tens of millions of euro, potentially hundreds of millions of euro.
