More than 160,000 artifacts have gone missing from Russian museums, according to an inventory ordered by President Vladimir Putin and released on Tuesday.

"The main thing we have found is that over the past 80 years, 160,000 items have gone missing," first deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in comments on Russian television.

The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg lost more than 200 works valued at $5 million US in total, prompting an investigation of museum inventory throughout Russia.
(Dmitry Lovetsky/Associated Press)

Checks were conducted in 500 federal, regional and municipal museums in the first half of 2007.

"The situation is very alarming. We have probed 500 museums with 20 million items. That is one quarter of the country's total museum collection," he said.

Russia launched an investigation after artifacts valued at $5 million US were discovered to have been taken from the famed Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

A long-serving curator at the Hermitage, who died of a heart attack while an inventory was underway at the museum, was behind the thefts.

Her husband, Nikolai Zavadsky, who pleaded guilty to the thefts, said he had pawned the items for cash to buy insulin for his diabetic wife Larissa. The pair had stolen more than 200 silver and enamel artifacts.

The case highlighted how poorly guarded were Russia's national treasures, especially when those working in the museum sector were so underpaid.

State funding for museums dried up after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. Staff were offered huge sums for artifacts by criminal groups who specialize in the export of stolen art works to lucrative art markets in Europe, Asia and North America.

Medvedev recommended wrapping up the investigation, even in cases where it is unknown where the art has gone, and concentrating on addressing the problems of Russia's museums.

Many museums need extensive repairs and the commission is also discussing better security.