Hutchinson ? Suspicions aroused about items appearing to be from the large collection at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center showing up in the hands of private collectors led to an audit that determined more than 100 artifacts had disappeared.

The missing items include space helmets, gloves and other personal equipment of astronauts and miscellaneous small equipment and hardware from the U.S. space program, Cosmosphere president Jeff Ollenburger said Thursday.

The losses were discovered six to eight weeks ago and the FBI is investigating, said Jeff Lanza, spokesman for the agency’s regional office in Kansas City, Mo.

“We discovered it, we investigated it and we handed it over to appropriate authorities as soon as we realized it was bigger than anything we could handle,” Ollenburger said.

“The number-one priority we have is to protect the integrity and reputation of this facility,” Ollenburger added. “We’d like to have our items back. We’d like to know who’s responsible for taking them.”

He said the museum first contacted the Reno County District Attorney’s Office, and the matter was referred on to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The cosmosphere has about 12,000 space-related items, most of them in storage either at the museum or in two warehouses. Ollenburger said none of the missing items were on loan from the Smithsonian Institution, but several had been loaned to the museum by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration.

Ollenburger said the audit began because of concern that items from the museum were being sold without approval of the board.

“We’ve seen some items turn up in the hands of private individuals where we knew those were our things,” he said. “There were several different points of discovery where light bulbs went on and we realized we may have a problem.”

Ron Leslie, a Hutchinson attorney who serves on the board, said he had “a gut feeling that some crimes were committed.”

“There’s one case I’ve personally seen where a Cosmosphere artifact was auctioned in another state, and the board had not authorized it,” he said.

Ollenburger said only a few people at the Cosmosphere had access to the keys and security codes that allow access to stored artifacts. He declined to say whether the investigation had led to any suspects, but said, “To the best of my knowledge, the investigation does not involve anyone currently employed by the Cosmosphere.”

The sale of space-related artifacts is a big business, according to Robert Pearlman, owner of collectSPACE.com, a Web-based clearinghouse.

“Most space collectors, if not proper historians, are at least amateur historians who preserve this stuff for historic purposes,” Pearlman said. “There’s a real sense of responsibility in preserving things that otherwise might be discarded.”

Pearlman posted a news release about the investigation on his Web site and said he’d already heard from people who bought Cosmosphere-related artifacts and wondered if they might be involved in the investigation.

He added that he wouldn’t be surprised if the missing items end up being returned to the Cosmosphere.