ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIAN FEDERATION.- .- The State Hermitage expresses its thanks to antiques dealers and collectors for the solidarity they have shown and for their help in returning exhibits stolen from the Department of History of Russian Culture. The State Hermitage is grateful to all the Moscow and Petersburg institutions involved for a productive collaboration which has already resulted in several objects being handed over to the responsible state offices. These objects will now undergo expert appraisal for purposes of identification.

During the period 2 - 5 August, commissions of Roskultura and Rosokhrankultura worked in the Hermitage. Together with Hermitage staff, they made an analysis of the security systems and inventory procedures used in storage of art works. The official results will be published next week. However, already the joint work by the Hermitage and the commissions as well as the very fact of the theft of the exhibits show that the practice and system of inventory-keeping no longer satisfy the needs of the times: they correspond neither to the technical possibilities afforded by modern technology nor to the role played by the human factor.

The joint work with the commissions has set out basic measures for changing the situation with respect to museum security, among them: to sharply raise the level of attention given to the role of curators and to monitoring the fulfillment of all internal rules and orders; a radical change in the schedule and priorities of internal checks and expert appraisals; sharp curtailment of access to storerooms by museum staff; serious limitation on the number of exhibitions.

The State Hermitage asks journalists to exercise greater caution in dealing with unofficial information with respect to the investigation underway.