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Valuable artifacts and cultural objects have been removed from the National Museum of Syria in the capital, officials say.

The theft was discovered on Monday, when museum workers reportedly found that an entrance had been damaged from the interior.

The half-dozen missing sculptures were made of marble and traced back to the Roman period, a source informed the Associated Press.

Syria's Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums said it had launched a probe to establish the "events surrounding the theft of a collection of items", and that steps had been implemented to enhance security and monitoring systems.

The director of national security in the capital area, General Osama Atkeh, was referenced by the state-run Sana news agency as saying that authorities were investigating the theft, which he said had affected several "ancient sculptures and unique items".

He noted that guards at the museum and other individuals were being interviewed.

The Damascus Museum, which was created in 1919, houses the significant archaeological collection in Syria.

It contains clay cuneiform tablets originating to the 14th Century BC from Ugarit, where proof of the oldest known writing system was discovered; Greco-Roman period ancient art from Palmyra, among the foremost cultural centres of the classical era; and a third century religious building that was constructed at an ancient location.

The facility was forced to close in the early 2010s, twelve months after the start of the destructive conflict. The majority of the collection was removed and kept at undisclosed sites to safeguard them.

It partially resumed in 2018 and returned to normal in early this year, one month after opposition groups overthrew the Assad regime.

Every one of nationally recognized sites were harmed or partly ruined during the internal struggle.

The militant faction demolished numerous temples and additional edifices at the archaeological site, asserting that they were idolatrous. The cultural organization denounced the destruction as a atrocity.

Countless cultural items were also lost or taken from dig sites and collections.