Two Indian jewels, earrings and a brooch from the "Treasures of Mughals and the Maharajas" exhibition at Doge’s Palace in Venice were snatched from a display case on Wednesday morning. 

Dramatic CCTV footage shows the moment two brazen thieves raided the reinforced case before blending into crowds and making their escape. 

Local police have now been forced to call in the help of experts in Rome to try and establish how the pair managed to pull off the miraculous theft, which involved deactivating an alarm system. 

The alarm was only raised several hours later at the Palazzo Ducale in St Mark’s Square. 

The value of the stolen items has been estimated at around €30,000 (£27,000), but police sources local media they were probably worth millions.

Police chief Marco Odorisio said: “It was probably not an impromptu gesture.

“The cases were supposed to be inaccessible and for this reason we need to understand the weaknesses in the security system in order to establish how they were able to commit the theft.”

Vito Gagliardi, the chief police commissioner, said the case was opened “as if it was a tin can”.

He added: “We are clearly dealing here with two skilled professionals who managed to pull off their feat despite all the display rooms being fitted with a highly sophisticated alarm system.” 

The al-Thani collection includes 270 pieces of Indian and Indian-inspired jewellery and stones, which span back 400 years to present day.

The exhibition, which has toured Paris, London , New York and Japan, was due to close on Wednesday. 

A source added: “This particular collection of jewels was delicious for the thieves. They waited for the very last day, which was the perfect time to act.”