The $5 million theft of artworks from Russia's Hermitage Museum is the tip of the iceberg and more losses are certain to be discovered at other leading museums, the head of the state culture watchdog said on Tuesday.
President Vladimir Putin ordered an urgent inventory of all state museums and archives after it emerged that a curator at the world-famous Hermitage had for years been smuggling out artefacts and pawning them for cash.
"I am convinced that more such discoveries await us during the work of the commission," Boris Boyarskov, head of the Rosokhrankultura watchdog, told a news briefing.
"We have every ground for such a concern...There will be discoveries (of thefts) and they will be in our country's main, leading museums as well as in the provinces.
"What happened with the Hermitage...is not a one-off." An inventory revealed about 200 silver and enamel pieces had disappeared from the Hermitage, a vast collection in the tsarist Winter Palace in St Petersburg which includes works by Leonardo da Vinci and Claude Monet. The theft focused attention on years of neglect and under-funding at Russia's museums.
Security measures are often inadequate. Most museum workers earn less than the national average wage, many are demoralised and some find illicit ways to supplement their income.