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Valuable statues and other artefacts have been stolen from the National Museum of Syria in Damascus, officials say.

The robbery was found on Monday, when employees reportedly found that one of the museum's doors had been damaged from the interior.

The multiple taken pieces were crafted from marble and dated back to the Roman era, a source stated to the Associated Press.

The nation's antiquities authority said it had initiated an inquiry to determine the "circumstances surrounding the theft of a group of artifacts", and that actions had been enacted to strengthen security and surveillance.

The chief of internal security in the Damascus region, General Osama Atkeh, was quoted by the government press as saying that authorities were probing the theft, which he said had focused on several "historical artifacts and rare collectibles".

He continued that security personnel at the institution and other individuals were being interrogated.

The cultural institution, which was founded in 1919, holds the primary archaeological collection in Syria.

It features clay cuneiform tablets tracing back to the 14th Century BC from an ancient city, where evidence of the earliest linguistic system was discovered; 1st and 2nd Century AD classical statues from Palmyra, a significant ancient sites of the ancient world; and a third century Jewish temple that was established at another archaeological site.

The institution was had to cease operations in 2012, twelve months after the beginning of the devastating civil war. A large portion of the collection was removed and kept at secure places to ensure their safety.

It reopened partially in 2018 and returned to normal in early this year, a month after insurgents overthrew President Bashar al-Assad.

Every one of Syria's Unesco World Heritage sites were affected or significantly impacted during the conflict.

The Islamic State group destroyed numerous temples and additional edifices at Palmyra, asserting that they were un-Islamic. Unesco censured the destruction as a war crime.

Many artefacts were also damaged or looted from dig sites and collections.