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.

Authorities were racing Monday to reassure the public about security at key cultural sites — and find the jewels stolen from the museum before they can be broken up and melted down.

Hours after the ‘heist of the century’ unfolded at the Louvre Museum on Sunday, another museum in northeastern France was robbed. The theft took place at the Maison des Lumières (House of Enlightenment) in Langres,

As Paris wrestles with ballooning debt and a budget impasse, two major Franco-German military projects and other E.U. integration initiatives could stall.

The country’s attachment to an early pension, seen as a fundamental right, forced a major concession by the government, allowing it to survive, for now.

I am now in distress, in ill health, & in a forreign [sic] country,” Hay wrote in one letter from 1839, pleading its reciever to “save me from utter ruin.”

France is backing away from a recent commitment to intervene more forcefully at sea to stop small boats from crossing the English Channel, according to multiple sources contacted by the BBC. There is evidence that France's current political turmoil is partly to blame, but it will come as a blow to the UK government's attempts to tackle the issue.