The British Museum says it has recovered some of the 2,000 stolen items

LONDON (AP) — The director of the British Museum’s board of trustees said Saturday the museum has recovered some of the 2,000 items believed to have been stolen by an insider, but conceded the 264-year-old institution has no records. of everything. in his vast collection.

Trustee Chairman George Osborne acknowledged that the museum’s reputation had been damaged by its mismanagement of theft, leading to the resignation of its director and raised questions about security and leadership.

Osborne told the BBC on Saturday that 2,000 stolen items was a “very provisional figure” and that staff were working to identify all that is missing. Items include gold jewelry, precious stones, and antiques up to 3,500 years old. None had been on public display recently.

He said the museum was working with the antiquarian community and art recovery experts to recover the items.

“We believe that we have been victims of theft for a long period of time and, frankly, more could have been done to prevent it,” he said. “But I promise you this: It’s a mess we’re going to clear up.”

Museum director Hartwig Fischer announced his resignation on Friday and apologized for not taking seriously enough an art historian’s warning that items from his collection were being sold on eBay. Deputy Chief Jonathan Williams also said he would stand aside while a review of the incident is conducted.

In early 2021, British-Danish art dealer and historian Ittai Gradel contacted museum bosses to tell them of his suspicions, but they assured him nothing was wrong. However, earlier this year the museum called the London Metropolitan Police.

The museum fired a staff member and took legal action against him, but no arrests have been made.

Gradel told The Associated Press on Friday that he became suspicious after buying one of three items that a seller had listed on eBay. Gradel tracked the two items he didn’t buy back to the museum. The object he bought was not listed in the museum’s catalogue, but he discovered that it had belonged to a man who gave his entire collection to the museum in 1814.

The historian said he found the seller’s identity through PayPal. He turned out to be the museum staff member who has since been fired.

Gradel said Williams had assured him that a thorough investigation found no wrongdoing. “He basically told me to fuck off and mind my own business.”

Fischer said in his resignation statement that “it is clear that the British Museum did not respond as fully as it should to the warnings in 2021.” He also apologized to Gradel.

The thefts and the museum’s failed response have plunged the institution into a crisis. The 18th-century museum in the Bloomsbury district of central London is one of Britain’s biggest tourist attractions, visited by 6 million people a year. They come to see a collection that ranges from Egyptian mummies and ancient Greek statues to Viking treasures, 12th-century Chinese poetry scrolls and masks created by Canada’s indigenous people.

The thefts have been exploited by those who want the museum to return objects looted from around the world during the British Empire period, including friezes that He once adorned the Parthenon. in Athens and the benin bronzes from West Africa.

“We want to tell the British Museum that they can no longer say that Greek (cultural) heritage is more protected in the British Museum,” Despina Koutsoumba, director of the Association of Greek Archaeologists, told the BBC this week.

Osborne, the former UK treasury chief, said the museum had launched an independent review led by a lawyer and a senior police officer. He said he had also built a state-of-the-art external storage facility so the collection was no longer housed in an “18th century basement.”

“I don’t think there was some kind of deliberate cover-up, although the review may determine that to be the case,” he said.

“But was there any potential think tank in the museum at the time, at the very top of the museum, that just couldn’t believe that someone with inside information was stealing stuff, couldn’t believe that one of the staff was doing this? ? Yes, that is very possible.”