The loot stolen from the Louvre during the weekend heist is valued at more than $100 million, a French prosecutor said Tuesday, as scrutiny mounted over security at the country's cultural institutions.

Thieves on Sunday made off with priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum in a brazen daylight robbery which lasted just seven minutes.

"The Louvre curator estimated the damages to be 88 million euros," or $102 million, said Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, calling it an "extraordinary" sum.

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But she said the greater loss was to France's historical heritage, adding that the thieves wouldn't gain much if they had "the very bad idea of melting down these jewels".

The theft is the latest from French museums in recent months, and has left authorities scrambling to increase protection measures.

Scores of investigators were still looking for Sunday's culprits, working on the theory that it was an organised crime group that clambered up a ladder on a truck to break into the museum, then dropped a diamond-studded crown as they fled.

Beccuau confirmed that four people were involved in Sunday's robbery and said authorities were analysing fingerprints found at the scene.

Detectives were scouring video camera footage from around the Louvre as well as of main highways out of Paris for signs of the four robbers, who escaped on scooters.

The heist has reignited a row over the lack of security in French museums, after two other institutions were hit last month.

In January, Louvre president Laurence des Cars warned Culture Minister Rachida Dati of a "worrying level of obsolescence", citing the urgent need for major renovations.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez on Monday said he would tighten security outside cultural institutions.

In Sunday's heist, thieves parked a truck with an extendable ladder, like those used by movers, below the museum's Apollo Gallery shortly after it opened, climbing up and using cutting equipment to get through a window and open the display cases to steal the jewellery.

They made off with eight priceless pieces, including an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.

The museum on Tuesday hit back at criticism that the display cases protecting the jewellery were fragile, saying they were installed in 2019 and "represented a considerable improvement in terms of security".

The Louvre was shut per its usual schedule on Tuesday, having been closed on Sunday and Monday after the heist, leaving crowds of disappointed tourists.

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