Authorities said Tuesday that about 2,000 drawings by avant-garde artist and architect Yakov Chernikhov are missing from the state archive of literature and art. Officials say 274 drawings have been found with antiques dealers and will be returned.

This is the second major art theft announced in Russia in the past week.

Last week, officials said more than 220 objects had been taken from St. Petersburg's famed Hermitage museum. At least three people have been detained in connection with that crime, including the husband and son of a museum curator.

Authorities say several of the items have been recovered, including a gilded silver cross and a silver ladle found Tuesday outside the St. Petersburg headquarters of the Russian security service, the F.S.B.