Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of State Hermitage Museum.

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIAN FEDERATION.- A third person has been detained in connection with the Hermitage Museum theft.

A spokesperson stated, ��The husband and son of a museum curator who died when the check began are among those who have been detained.��

According to Pravda newspaper, the stolen masterpieces were taken abroad in a string-bag and are worth around $5 million dollars. Police are finding works of art in St Petersburg. Six of the stolen works have been received in the antiques section of the Department of Internal Affairs, among them were two icons.

According to Komsomolskaya Pravda, "workers of the museum who had direct access to the storage rooms have been blamed for the theft. Larissa Zavadskaya, suspected of committing the crime, according to colleagues, was a useless specialist on the material, but she worked well with the documents. She passed away in October last year, exactly when the inspection of museum funds under her trust began. But this does not mean that no-one will be tried in court: the woman��s husband and son have been arrested and accused of complicity in the robbery and sale of jewelry from the Hermitage collection. The have already pleaded guilty."