The British Museum, one of the most famous and prestigious museums in the world, was founded in 1753.
London:
The British Museum has begun recovering some of the artifacts that were taken out and sold online, museum president George Osborne said Saturday, CNN reported.
Osborne’s comments follow revelations that the museum failed to heed warnings that items from the collection had appeared for sale online.
The extent of the theft was previously unclear.
The museum had said the majority of the missing items were “small pieces kept in a storage room” from one collection. These include gold jewellery, semi-precious stones and glass from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD. None of the items had been on public display recently.
Osborne, the former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, said about 2,000 artifacts have gone missing, some of which have already been recovered.
“We are dealing with a lot of honest people returning stolen items, others may not,” Osborne said, according to CNN.
The scandal appears to date back to 2021, when a Danish art dealer contacted the British Museum to say he had seen several items he believed were from the museum’s collection for sale online. The British Museum initially claimed to have conducted a thorough investigation, but a follow-up investigation found the initial response to be inadequate, Osborne said.
“Obviously we need to improve safety,” Osborne said.
The British Museum, one of the world’s best-known and most prestigious museums, was founded in 1753. Its exhibition of impressive historical artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon sculptures regularly attracts visitors from all over the world.
The scandal has proved deeply embarrassing for the museum, given both its status and repeated calls for the institution to return many of its artifacts which were themselves stolen during the British Empire.
Museum director Hartwig Fischer resigned on Friday and an unknown employee was fired on Wednesday.
“Yes, the museum has made mistakes. Yes, we’ve apologized for that. But we’re cleaning up the mess and we’re going to be that British museum that I think the nation and the world can be proud of.” he said, according to CNN.
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