[MSN] Five more objects have been found missing in the course of the investigation into the theft of 221 exhibits from St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Five more objects found missing from Hermitage collection

18.10.2006, 15.23

  
 MOSCOW, October 18 (Itar-Tass) - Five more objects have been found missing
in the course of the investigation into the theft of 221 exhibits from St.
Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. 

An official of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office told ITAR-TASS on
Wednesday that investigators had managed to return 29 of stolen objects to
Hermitage. 

One of them was a Breguet gold watch that a private collector owner
recognised on a published list of stolen valuables. He turned over the watch
to Rosokhrankultura agency. 

Police earlier had said that they had clues to whereabouts of 70 other
objects, but a number of them could be taken abroad. 

The theft of 221 art objects from Hermitage's Russian jewellery section was
found out during a scheduled check in this year' summer. 

A criminal case was instituted on July 31, with the Russian Prosecutor
General's Office overseeing its progress. 

It was established during the investigation that the cultural valuables were
stolen by Hermitage curator Larisa Zavadskaya, who died during of a heart
attack during the inspection. 

Investigators said that Zavadskaya had sold a number of the stolen object
together with her husband Nikolai Zavadsky. He has been formally charged
with grand larceny. 

The Prosecutor General's Office has extended the investigation to December
31. 

A senior investigator of the Moscow prosecutor's office, Nikolai Kovalchuk,
leads the investigating group.