The British Museum theft: The head of the museum confirmed that “about 2,000 items” were stolen | Some of them have already been recovered

After the scandal is over British Museum robberyThis led to the resignation of its director Hartwig Fischer, head of the prestigious cultural institution, George Osborneit was reported on Saturday around “2000 stolen workInvestigations indicate the case against a former employee who worked at the place until a week ago.

The former Conservative minister referred to this in an interview with BBC radio The exact number of stolen pieces was not knownBut I estimate they might get to “about 2000”. “Although it’s a very tentative number,” he added.

Among the missing items Small works not on display are from the Museum Reserve and some are not cataloged. also disappeared golden jewelry, Semi-precious stones and crystals from the collections extending from the fifteenth century BC to the nineteenth century AD.

However, Osborne claimed it Museum started “Some stolen parts recoveredwhich assumes a Ray of hope“.

The British Museum: An Archaeologist Under Suspicion

Shortly after the complaint was posted by The symbolic museum heistwhich houses some of the most important archaeological collections in the world, British media pointed to a possible suspect: a former employee of the cultural foundation.

Whom they point to as the supposed culprit for the disappearance of the objects is the archaeologist Peter Higgs(56 years old), who worked for three decades as an expert on the ancient Greece area of ​​​​the museum, although his family maintained his innocence. On Thursday, London police said a man had been questioned No one has been arrested yet.

On Wednesday, the museum announced Higgs’ dismissal After verifying that several pieces of his collections were stolen or destroyed. As explained by the Museum of London in a statement, The case is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police’s Economic Crimes Division.

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According to Osborne, the pieces were not on display to the public, but rather within groups open to academics and researchers only, and he explained that they had disappeared from the museum’s warehouses for many years. some of them It appeared on the Internet for sale as early as 2016as revealed.

Most of the objects were Small parts stored in a warehouse belonging to to one of the groups museum, and the objects in question include pieces of goldsmithing and Semi-precious stonessome of It dates back to the fifteenth century before the Christian era. None of the pieces have been shown to the public recently and have been mainly preserved for academic purposes and search.

The museum “should accelerate the process already underway to create a complete inventory,” said Obsorn. In addition, I regret the news of the thefts “Damaged the reputation of the British MuseumOsborne regretted it.

“We believe we have been victims of theft for a long period of time, honestly, More could have been done to prevent this“, pointed out.

German historian Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, announced today, Friday, his resignation with immediate effect, saying that the institution “It did not fully respond as it should” to alerts that began appearing in 2021 of missing items from their London headquarters warehouse.

The British Museum: History and Significance

Founded in 1753, the British Museum has a collection of around eight million items, incl Millennium objects from ancient Egypt are included, Civilizations along the Silk Road or Greece and Rome.

The foundation is known worldwide for including in its collections such pieces as Rosetta Stone (a fragment of an Egyptian stele made it possible to decipher hieroglyphs at the beginning of the 19th century) and Parthenon marble.

In recent years the enterprise She faces strong pressure to restore the pieces that enriched her collections in the days of the British Empirewhich includes one of the most expensive pieces, the Parthenon Marbles.

The British government claims that these pieces were “lawfully acquired” in 1802 by British diplomat Lord Elgin, who resold them to the British Museum. but, Greece claims it was “looted” When the country was under Ottoman occupation.

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