The British Museum seeks to recover some 2,000 stolen objects

LONDON (Reuters) – Around 2,000 objects, including gold jewelery and gems, were stolen from the British Museum over a long period of time, but recovery efforts were already underway, museum chairman George Osborne said on Saturday. .

The museum, one of London’s most popular attractions whose treasures include the Rosetta Stone, an ancient Egyptian relic inscribed with hieroglyphs and other texts, said last week that a staff member had been fired after items dating back to the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD it had been removed from a warehouse.

Hartwig Fischer, director of the museum said in On Friday he would resign after admitting failures in his investigation into the theft of objects from his collection.

Osborne, a former British finance minister, told BBC radio that not all of the museum’s collection was properly cataloged or registered, a situation not unique among large institutions whose collections have amassed over hundreds of years.

Osborne said a “forensic” investigation was underway to find out what had been stolen. “We think it’s around 2,000 items,” she said. “But I have to say it’s a very tentative number and we’re still actively looking.”

“We have already started to recover some of the stolen items,” he added, without giving details of what was recovered or how.

Osborne said he did not believe there had been any deliberate cover-up after the museum previously rejected a warning in 2021 that thefts were taking place.

But there might have been some “potential think tank” at the top of the institution that couldn’t believe someone with inside information was stealing, he said.

He said the thefts had “certainly been damaging” to the reputation of the museum, which bills itself as a trusted custodian of priceless artifacts from cultures around the world.

“For that I apologize on behalf of the museum,” he said.

Police said Thursday they had interviewed, but not charged, an unnamed man over the stolen artifacts.

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.