Fifteen Chinese antique items were stolen from the British Museum in London last week, a spokeswoman for the museum said Monday.

The stolen items, most of them jewelry including hairpins, earrings and fingernail guards dating back from the 700 to 1400 AD,were possibly stolen Friday evening, the spokeswoman told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

She added that the museum noticed the items were missing Saturday. Police suspect the robbery is linked to the theft of nine Chinese art objects worth about 60,000 pounds (about 108,000 US dollars) from the Victoria and Albert museum in London last month.

The spokeswoman gave no estimate of how much the stolen treasure are worth.

"We don't put financial values on our pieces, but these are obviously historically important items," she said.

Founded in 1753, the British Museum houses one of the world's greatest collections of antiquities and artifacts, totaling aroundseven million items.

The four kilometers of galleries and corridors in the museum are patrolled daily by a security force and feature a sophisticated alarm system.

On October 4, thieves smashed a cabinet in the Victoria and Albert Museum and stole nine Chinese objects including three smallcups, two miniature animal figures, a bowl, two small ornamental plaques and a small ritual cylinder.