MOSCOW.- Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered officials to verify the location of 50 million artworks at Russian museums. This comes after the news that 221 items were stolen from the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg. So far 16 stolen works have been recovered, among them a gold-and-silver cross and two icons recovered yesterday by the police from a railway luggage office after a tip-off. Putin has asked officials to set up a commission by September 1 to do an inventory of the museum works all over Russia.