ST. PETERSBURG.- Police have detained the husband of a museum curator and a second person suspected of stealing hundreds of artworks from Russia's Hermitage Museum, Interfax news agency said on Saturday. "Two people suspected of stealing exhibits from the State Hermitage Collections were detained overnight," Interfax quoted the source as saying. Officials investigating the theft could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile a Russian antiquarian discovered that his shop had a richly decorated chalice that was part of the 220 pieces of art stolen from the Hermitage Museum in Russia. The shop owner returned the piece to authorities on Friday.

Anatoly Vilkov, chief of the department of the protection of cultural assets at the Ministry of Culture said that the antiquarian, who live in Moscow, informed that he had bought the chalice in 2004, a 19th century piece that is covered in gold and silver and also has precious stones on it.

The chalice “was exhibited during various antique art fairs”, Volkov said. He didn´t identify the antiquarian but admitted that he was helping authorities with the robbery.

The recovered chalice is the second one that has been announced this week that were stolen from the famous museum in Saint Petersburg. On Thursday, the police in that city said that an anonymous caller alerted them to a piece that had been thrown at a garbage disposal.

The heist of 220 works of art estimated to be valued at 5 million USD was discovered alter a routine inventory was undertaken starting on October of 2005 and ending in July.