The Russian government commission found that hundreds of thousands of art pieces are missing

Moscow - Russian officials are missing approximately 160,000 items that should be in museum collections. This was revealed by a specially established government commission. It began working after a case of the curator of the St. Petersburg Hermitage came to light, who had been smuggling artifacts out of this significant museum for years to earn extra money through their sale.
    Following this scandal, Russian authorities commenced an extensive review. After an inventory of half a thousand museums with over twenty million items, reportedly a quarter of all Russian collections, it was revealed that around 160,000 recorded items are missing.
    “We have reviewed a quarter of all collections in the country, managing to determine their losses over the last eight decades,” emphasized Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, according to the ITAR-TASS agency. He stated that the situation is very alarming.
    In March, a court sentenced the perpetrator of extensive thefts in the well-known St. Petersburg Hermitage gallery to five years in prison. He was convicted for five years. The husband of the museum curator, who died at her workplace when the disappearance of several items was discovered, is not required to pay a fine of 10,000 rubles (about 8,000 crowns).