It is the most spectacular robbery at the Louvre museum since the Mona Lisa disappeared in 1911.
And it poses serious questions about levels of security covering French artworks, at a time when they are increasingly being targeted by criminal gangs.
According to France's new interior minister Laurent Nunez, the gang that broke into the Apollo Gallery Sunday morning was clearly professional.
They knew what they wanted, had evidently "cased the joint" in advance, had a brazenly simple but effective modus operandi, and needed no more than seven minutes to take their booty and get away.
In a truck equipped with an elevating platform of the type used by removal companies, they parked on the street outside, raised themselves up to the first floor, then used a disc-cutter to enter through a window.
