Putin orders art inventory

President Vladimir Putin ordered top officials to conduct a nationwide inventory of 50 million artworks at Russian museums, concerned that other treasures may be missing following the theft of $5-million worth of valuables from the famed Hermitage.

Putin on Thursday told Cabinet officials to set up a commission by Sept. 1 to conduct the inventory, the president’s office said. Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev were among the officials tapped for the commission.

Russian authorities say that only a quarter of the country’s artworks have been inventoried since a check began six years ago, the first such survey since the closing years of the Soviet Union.