Beijing police said Friday that they have recovered six pieces of art that were stolen from the Palace Museum on Monday, and they will continue their search for the other missing pieces.

Police authorities, however, did not say how many pieces remain missing and how they recovered the lost relics that had been loaned to the Palace Museum by Hong Kong's private Liang Yi Museum.

Fu Zhenghua, director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, cited the museum's support and the police's application of "advanced technologies" as reasons for a fast recovery of the stolen pieces.

Police had previously detained a male suspect, 28, in a suburban Beijing Internet cafe. Shi Baikui, a native of east China's Shandong Province, is suspected of breaking into the heavily-guarded Forbidden City museum to steal the relics, mostly Western-style make-up cases encrusted with jewels, on May 9.

Shi confessed to the theft during police interrogations, officials said.