Only 350 items on 2,000 pieces stolen from the British Museum as part of an “inside job” revealed earlier this year, were recovered, museum president George Osborne said.
The director of the British Museum said officials were working as quickly as possible to return stolen objects to the institution over a “period of 20 to 25 years”, and that “350 of them have now been recovered and their titles were returned to us.
Speaking at a hearing by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Wednesday, Mr Osborne suggested the British Museum would hold a special exhibition to showcase the recovered objects “which were not previously anticipated”.
Around 2,000 items worth millions of pounds reportedly stolen over several decades, as part of a scandal revealed this summer.
The relevant treasures, which mainly include gold jewelry, semi-precious stones and glass objects dating from 1,500 BC to the 19th century AD, had been kept mainly for academic and research purposes.
The Metropolitan Police have launched an investigation into the alleged thefts and a man was questioned under caution in August.
“We were victims of an inside job,” Mr Osborne told MPs. “I think it will become clear in the coming months that a lot of steps were taken to cover this up. It’s not just that things were taken, records were tampered with, etc., it’s hard to spot.”
Sir Mark Jones, the museum’s acting director who replaced the embattled Dr Hartwig Fischer in September, also revealed the suspect had put the stolen items up for sale on eBay as items he had “inherited”.
The scandal erupted earlier this summer when the museum announced it had fired a staff member – who was later revealed to be the staff member. Peter Higgs, its curator of Mediterranean cultures – after the discovery of thousands of missing objects. He had worked at the British Museum for more than 30 years and denied any wrongdoing, according to his family.
It later emerged that an expert antiques dealer had warned the British Museum that items matching those in its collection were constantly appearing for sale on eBay, some for as little as £40.
Dr Ittai Gradel, a Danish antiquities dealer, alerted the British Museum to his suspicions in 2020. He then handed over a file of evidence to Dr Jonathan Williams, deputy director of the museum, in February 2021, demonstrating that objects were being sold on eBay. from a seller with a bank account in the name of Mr. Higgs.
The museum launched an internal investigation into the allegations but concluded there was “nothing to worry about.”
“We now know that was the wrong conclusion,” Sir Mark told MPs on Wednesday. “The Dr. Gradels of this world are part of the alarm system, because they can say ‘we know this collection very well and there are things missing’.”
Mr Osborne announced that the British Museum’s entire collection would now be digitized to protect against further theft, in a privately funded project which he said would cost up to £10 million. pound sterling.
The British Museum appealed for help from the public earlier this year to help recover the stolen objects, and said it was “actively monitoring the art market” in case they were released. sale.
The Bloomsbury Museum’s website says that although it has been advised by “recovery specialists” not to identify the exact objects stolen, people should keep an eye out for Greek and Roman gemstones which “may be cast from from a mold or engraved by hand.
“They can feature images of famous people from the classical past, mythological scenes, animals or objects,” he adds.
Mr Osborne also discussed a potential deal to temporarily return the Elgin Marbles to Greece.
He told the culture, media and sport committee: “We think they play a very important role at the museum in telling not only the story of ancient Athens and its role in the world, but also the way it stands alongside other great civilizations.
“I think it’s worth exploring – and I’ve had direct discussions with the Greek government about this – is there some sort of arrangement that would allow certain sculptures to spend some of their time in Greece ? And what would be the partnership that would arise from this?
Mr Osborne noted that the presence of the marbles in the UK had been controversial for 200 years since their discovery by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1803 and 1812.
He added: “It is not a particularly fortunate situation that we have faced this impasse with Greece for many decades, and the level of scholarship and engagement that we have with many other countries is not not the one found in some Greek museums. »
He continued: “We want to create a real partnership that would mean objects from Greece coming here, objects that have potentially never left Greece before and certainly never seen before, and objects from the Parthenon collection potentially traveling in Greece.
“But if this problem was easy to solve, it would have been easy to solve in the 1810s and since. This is an issue that British governments of all colors have fought against.”
Later in the session, Lord Parkinson, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for arts and heritage, said “there is no legal prohibition” on allowing them to go abroad.
