(NewsNation) — In just minutes, a group of thieves entered the Louvre dressed as construction workers, smashed display cases and made away with Napoleon-era jewels, according to officials.

The heist happened 30 minutes after the museum — which houses more than 350,000 objects in Paris, France — opened on Sunday.

The perpetrators rode a basket lift up its Seine-facing façade, cut windowpanes with a disc cutter, entered the Apollon Gallery and shattered two of the royal collection's display cases. They then fled on motorbikes, according to French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.

Photos: Which jewels were stolen from the Louvre?

The thieves took at least eight pieces of France's crown jewels, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-centu

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