The British Museum, which houses treasures that are world heritage sites, has begun to recover some of the 2,000 pieces that have been allegedly stolen from the institution, its president, George Osborne, revealed this Saturday.
In statements made to the British station BBC Radio 4, the former UK Finance Minister spoke of the theft of objects from the institution that have come to light in recent weeks.
The pieces, which were not on view, but were found in collections open only to academics and researchers, disappeared from the museum's warehouses for a long period of years, and some of them appeared for sale on internet pages as early as 2016, according to information from the local press.
The British Museum, one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the country, has come under heavy pressure after confirming earlier this month that several of its treasures had been "lost, stolen or damaged".
"We have already begun to recover some of the stolen items and we believe that we have been victims of thieves over a long period of time," admitted today Osborne, appointed president of the center in June 2021, who considered that "frankly, it was I could have done more to prevent it."
He also indicated that the center is working very closely with the police and that "forensic" work is being carried out to establish exactly what the missing pieces are.
The German historian Hartwig Fisher, director of the British Museum, announced yesterday in a statement that he has submitted his resignation with immediate effect, considering that the institution "did not respond as fully as it should have" to the alerts that began to appear in 2021. about the loss of objects from the warehouses of its London headquarters.
This month, the British Museum, which houses some of the most important archaeological collections in the world, fired an employee after noting the loss of gold jewellery, semi-precious stones and glass objects dating between the 15th century B.C. and the XIX.
British media have pointed to archaeologist Peter Higgs, 56, who worked for three decades as an expert on Ancient Greece at the center, as the alleged culprit in the disappearance of objects, although his family has defended his innocence.
