A shocking case of theft in British Museum

Started in 1759, the British Museum has an incomplete catalogue due to the vastness of its holding. The artefacts that have gone missing are believed to be small pieces which were not on display and were possibly not accounted for in official catalogues. (Photo by SL Wong via Pexels)

The highest form of vandalism of a cultural shrine in a secure and peaceful democracy is the pilfering of precious objects it houses. The Scotland Yard is investigating the case of 2,000 artefacts worth millions of pounds which have been reported to be missing, stolen or damaged from the prestigious British Museum. This includes gold ornaments and intricate glass-crafted jewellery all of which were kept in storage. The global art world is stunned by the developments as it emerged that the museum ignored alerts by an antiquities expert to possible thefts by an insider as early as 2021. One of the missing objects valued at £50,000 was offered for a paltry £40 on eBay.

The British Museum, which opened its doors in 1759 and has over 8 million objects, seems to have a problem of plenty. It has an incomplete catalogue due to the vastness of its holding and artefacts that have gone missing are believed to be small pieces which were not on display and were possibly not accounted for in official catalogues. Experts say this will make it difficult to hunt and restore the items because it might be tricky to prove that they were part of the collection at the British Museum in the first place.

On Friday, Hartwig Fischer, the director of the British Museum, stepped down after having the temerity to blame Ittai Gradel, the Dutch whistleblower and art expert, for not giving complete information. Gradel has been communicating with the museum for over two years and in 2021 gave them a dossier of evidence which revealed that items were being sold on eBay. Adding a layer of complexity to the whole episode is the fact that Gradel himself has been buying items from eBay at least since 2014 from a seller who used the old twitter handle of a British Museum employee.

Gradel continued to buy from the seller who told him that the items on sale were inherited from his late grandparents who ran an antiques shop. The former university professor was only convinced by 2020 that the items offered on sale belonged to the British Museum and were being pilfered by a current-day thief. The museum, however, did not pay enough attention to Gradel’s emails maintaining that the items claimed to be stolen were still in the museum or were stolen/missing decades before! Gradel has already returned the majority of the items he bought and was critical of the museum bosses for not taking prompt action.

It was only on August 16 that the museum released a statement saying that it had identified objects missing from its collection. Former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, who is the chairman of the British Museum, confirmed that 2,000 objects were indeed missing. Some of those missing objects have been traced. Osborne told the BBC, “We believe we have been the victim of thefts over a long period of time and frankly more could have been done to prevent them.” This acknowledgment, however, seems to have come at least two years too late. As of now there has been no formal arrest, signifying that this could be a long-drawn investigation.

The British Museum began with the personal collection of Anglo-Irish scientist Sir Hans Sloane which he bequeathed to the nation. The expansion of the British Empire added immensely to its collection, necessitating regular expansion of the building. It is joked that the only reason the pyramids remained in Egypt is because they were too heavy to carry off to the British Museum. Not surprisingly the museum has a fairly good collection of objects from the Indian sub-continent, although it is not known whether any artefacts with provenance in modern India are also among those missing.

This is of course not the first time that theft has been reported from the British Museum. In 2004, 15 pieces of medieval Chinese jewellery which included hairpins, earrings, fingernail guards, were taken out forcefully from a glass cabinet. They were stolen from the Oriental Antiquities gallery with relative ease, when security personnel were not around. In 2002, a 2,500-year-old Greek marble head was stolen by a member of the public and was sneaked out of the museum. It was just 12 cm in height but worth £50,000. The possibility of pocketing small objects seems to have always posed a problem. In the late 1960s, a young couple that was employed at the British Museum was arrested for stealing and selling 11 ancient seals for a much lower price than their worth. Fortunately, the sellers were traced and the items were restored.

Bust of Ptolemy at British Museum. News of the thefts has reignited calls for returning artefacts that were taken from once-colonized nations. (Photo by Petrouchka Eden via Pexels)

Clearly, far more items that have not been on display, but kept in stores and conservation premises have gone missing as they are usually not high on the security radar due to perceived low risk. In 1996, a Japanese chest was stolen from the museum. The unique item was not on display and was worth £100,000. In the same year, two rare Persian book covers also worth £100,000 went missing. These items were again not on display. A 17th-century Kakiemon porcelain figure from Japan was found missing in 1990 and a fragment of a gold ring was stolen in 1991.

These cases complement the fact that London itself has been used as a key centre in the smuggling of artefacts from around the world for decades. There is also the delicious irony that a main repository of worldwide artefacts, which various countries have protested were stolen or taken by force, now finds itself a victim of thefts, except it seems that this might be an insider job.

In the last few years there have been demands to permanently return indigenous objects to their origins, but major museums including the British Museum have objected. After the admission of theft, calls have been renewed to return artefacts and national treasures from countries like Greece (Elgin Marbles) and Nigeria (Benin Bronzes) that were taken to England and are kept in the British Museum.

European and American museums maintain that the collections are safe in their custody and free entry means they are accessible to a wider public. To the credit of the United Kingdom, it remains the only major country in Europe to keep entry to its museums free, although how safe are the collections is a question that needs to be asked.