Thieves hit Hermitage

ST. PETERSBURG, July 31 (RIA Novosti) - Over 200 jewelry items have disappeared from storage in St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum, the press service of the museum said Monday.

"The loss of 221 jewelry items, most of which were enamels from storage in the Russian section of the Hermitage, was discovered during a regular inspection," a spokesman said.

He said that the works of art were probably stolen, but did not give details.

The Hermitage administration will issue an official statement on Tuesday.

Police said the Hermitage administration had informed them of the loss, and that an investigative group was working at the scene.

The Russian section of the Hermitage contains over 300,000 works of art from Russia's thousand-year history.