Days after eight pieces of the French crown jewels were stolen from the Louvre, a former bank robber who once toured the now-infamous Apollo Gallery for a Louvre podcast says he warned a museum official of weaknesses in security.

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.

The Louvre has transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France, according to French radio RTL, after an audacious daylight heist last week exposed the famed museum's security vulnerability.

The robbery at the Louvre has done what no marketing campaign ever could: It has catapulted France’s dusty Crown Jewels — long admired at home, little known abroad — to global fame. One week on, the country is still wounded by the breach to its national heritage — even as authorities Sunday announced arrests tied to the haul.