RUSSIA: Russian authorities say the directors of the world famous Hermitage art museum may be prosecuted over the theft of 221 pieces of art.
Two staff were arrested last week after an inventory uncovered the thefts.
Now the culture minister, Mikhail Shvidkoy, said the administrators of the museum would also be targeted with "all necessary measures" taken.
The discovery of the theft has sent shock waves through Russia's cultural community. The Hermitage is Russia's most prestigious museum, with one of the world's finest collections of paintings, sculpture and jewellery.
Museum chiefs have taken the novel step of appealing to the world's art lovers for help in tracing the missing items, worth more than €4 million.
The museum website, www.hermitagemuseum.org, contains pictures of the missing items with a plea to return any that may have been bought inadvertently. They include gold and silver crosses and dozens of icons and jewels.
In Russia this has already begun to happen - one antiques dealer returned a gold and silver chalice he said he had bought in good faith from a dealer. A golden icon was then found in a garbage bin, and a mother-of-pearl icon was handed in to authorities.
In an emotional apology, the museum chiefs have admitted to "serious moral problems, dereliction of duty and lack of responsibility", among the guilty curators.
They promised a root-and-branch reform to clear what they say is the "seamy side" of their museum.
Investigators believe the thefts may stretch back years. The museum holds more than three million works of art, only 10 per cent of which are on display to the public.
The museum said the inventory began last winter. Shortly afterwards a curator, believed to be responsible for the thefts, who has not been named, died suddenly.