An antique collector has returned to police one more icon missing in a recently uncovered art heist from the world-famous Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, the Itar-Tass news agency reported on Wednesday (August 9).

The recovery of the icon of the Mother of God of Iver, dating back to 1866, brought the number of returned artworks to 13. Police do not rule out that some of the stolen artworks might have been sneaked out of the country.

Museum officials found more than 220 works of art missing during a routine inventory check completed late last month. The missing items were valued at 130 million rubles (5 million U.S. dollars).

Museum director Mikhail Piotrovsky called the theft "a stab in the back" to the Hermitage museum, one of the world's largest with a collection of 3.5 million items, and blamed the theft on museum workers. Three suspects have been arrested.

The Hermitage's collection, started by Empress Catherine the Great in 1764, boasts prehistoric art and one of the world's finest selections of impressionist and early 20th century paintings.

Piotrovsky will face "severe" administrative punishment for oversight that resulted in the theft of the artworks from the museum, said the head of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, Mikhail Shvydkoi.

Editor: Wing