In what could be the first major break in the investigation of the $102 million jewel heist at the Louvre Museum, police have found traces of DNA on items the thieves left behind in their hasty getaway,

Laurence des Cars, the Louvre's president and director, is set to testify about the heist before the French Senate's Culture, Education and Sport Committee on Oct. 22.

The only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointing away from the first-floor balcony that led to Gallery of Apollo housing the jewels, she said. "We failed these jewels," she said, adding that no-one was protected from "brutal criminals - not even the Louvre".

Questions abound about how four thieves were able to make off with priceless, Napoleonic-era jewels — in broad daylight

Thieves used a stolen truck-mounted moving lift to scale the Louvre and steal royal jewels worth over $100 million in a lightning-fast Paris heist.

The precious artifacts snatched from Paris’s Louvre Museum on Sunday include an emerald necklace gifted by Napoleon to his second wife and other priceless crown jewels.

Three masked thieves carried out the robbery in the Apollon Gallery on the museum's second floor, which overlooks the River Seine and is currently under construction.