British Museum details extent of stolen and damaged items

LONDON – Four months after the British Museum fired a curator suspected of stealing gems, jewellery and semi-precious stones, the London institution on Dec 12 released further information about the fate of the missing items.

Officials estimate

around 1,500 artefacts were stolen or are otherwise missing

from its Greek and Roman stores, the museum said in a news release.

Another 350 items have been damaged, the statement added, including by having gold removed. The gold parts were “likely to be unrecoverable”, the museum said, and were probably sold to scrap metal merchants.

Another 140 items that remain in the museum’s possession “have been damaged by tool marks”, the news release added.

Of the missing 1,500 items, just more than 350 had been returned, a British Museum spokeswoman said in an interview. Another 300 items had been identified but not recovered.

She added that all the returned items had come from Mr Ittai Gradel, a rare gem dealer who, in 2021, first alerted the British Museum to the losses, only to have his concerns rebuffed.

Previously, Mr Gradel had bought some items before realising they belonged to the museum.

The spokeswoman said the museum estimates the thief only made around £100,000 (S$169,000) selling the artefacts via websites including eBay, based on the items’ listings.

Further details of the missing items could not be released because of an ongoing police investigation, she added.

The British Museum has given regular updates on its investigation since it announced the thefts in August.

In October, Mr George Osborne, the museum’s chair, and Mr Mark Jones, the museum’s interim director, unveiled a US$12 million (S$16 million) five-year project to improve the British Museum’s record keeping.

On Dec 12, the museum also released some details of an independent review into the thefts by Mr Mark Boardman, a senior lawyer; Mr Ian Karet, a British judge; and Ms Lucy D’Orsi, a police official.

The review’s main recommendations for how the museum can improve its security were not made public, but the British Museum published 36 other suggestions on its website.

Those cover improvements to the museum’s policies and management procedures, including more frequent inventory checks.

Mr Osborne, who declined an interview request, said in the news release that he had accepted all the review’s recommendations.

The British Museum was “putting our own house in order”, he added. NYTIMES