The museum admitted that many of the approximately 2,000 missing objects may be “unrecoverable” having been defaced and “sold for scrap.”
The British Museum has determined that it broke the law after discovering last year that thousands of objects had disappeared of its collection, according to an internal museum investigation. Last December, the gallery itself revealed that some 2,000 objects were missing, including gold jewelry and semi-precious stones.
The revelation led to an internal audit, which has now confirmed that the museum breached British law that regulates the proper care of national treasures.
According to ‘The Times’, the Public Archives Act obliges UK museums and libraries to “comply with basic conservation standardsaccess and professional care”, and the objects must be “in the care of appropriately qualified personnel”.
Organizations that do not comply with these standards risk having their collections are transferred to another institution or delivered to the National Archives. However, a source of British Museum has stated that there is no indication that the gallery will face these consequences, despite having openly acknowledged its irregularities.
So far they have been located and recovered more than 600 of the objects that had disappeared from their warehouses. “Thanks to clever detective work and a network of supporters, we have achieved an extraordinary result: more than 600 of the objects are back with us, and another 100 have been identified,” said George Osborne, president of the board. from the British Museum and former chancellor.
“In total, almost half of the stolen items have been recovered“Osborne added. Last year, a senior official suspected of involvement was fired in the disappearance of objects. It was later discovered that it was Peter Higgscurator of Mediterranean cultures.
It was learned that antiquities experts had warned the British Museum that on the online shopping platform eBay objects that matched appeared for sale with those from his collection, some for only 40 pounds (46 euros).
The consequences of the robberies caused the resignation of its then directorHartwig Fischer, and the museum has since launched its own investigation into the thefts, as well as a call for the public help recover them.
