Stealing from the British Museum: How, why, who? - BBC Newsnight

Summary:

• Peter Higgs, a leading expert on Greek and Mediterranean artefacts, was sacked from the British Museum after almost 30 years.
• Items from the museum's collection were reported missing, stolen, or damaged, leading to the dismissal of an unnamed staff member.
• Academics suggest concerns about the situation had been raised over two years ago, hinting at a potential cover-up.
• The museum's director, Hartwig Fischer, is facing pressure and calls for resignation amid the unfolding crisis.
• More than 1,500 artifacts are reportedly missing, posing both historical and reputational challenges for the museum.
• The vulnerability of stored artifacts, motivations of thieves, and potential justifications for the thefts are discussed.
• Missing items, including small gems and jewelry, might be difficult to recover due to their nature and potential market disposal.
• The extent of the damage to the collection remains uncertain, leaving the British Museum in a state of crisis.

This is fireclave terracotta. He is one of the UK's leading experts on Greek and Mediterranean artefacts. But last month Peter Higgs was sacked by the British Museum after almost 30 years. He has not been arrested or charged with any offence. His family say he's done nothing wrong. But his departure from the museum came shortly before they announced items from its collection were missing, stolen or damaged and that an unnamed member of staff had been dismissed. In our national museum, this is a disgrace.

Information is only just emerging but academics say concerns had been raised more than two years ago. It sounds to me as though there was something of a cover-up going on in the museum because of the very severe reputational damage that this might do and of course what's actually happened means that the reputational damage is far far worse. I think the story of objects. There is no clear evidence of a cover-up but the museum's director Hartwig Fischer is now under intense pressure. He had already announced he's standing down next year. I think this is a matter of where they should just step down now and temporary director should be put in place. So you think the director of the museum should now resign?
Yes.

The British Museum won't say how many items have been lost or stolen or indeed their total value perhaps because they don't really know. The report suggests more than 1,500 artifacts are now missing. The result not just historical damage but reputational damage too. Protecting the collection is particularly challenging because of its vast scale. The British Museum has around eight million artifacts and the estimate is that maybe one percent of those are on public display and they'll have alarms and cabinets and all the things we'd associate with the museum security. However when they're sort of behind the scenes and they're in storage that's where I think the vulnerability has really been able to set in here. What could the potential motivations be for the person committing this sort of crime? Of course, financial gain is going to register highly but we also know that some individuals it's simply opportunity.

They realise how easy it is to steal something usually starting off very small and then if they're not apprehended it can escalate really quickly. There's a really interesting aspect to this psychologically and that is the justifications. So it may be that an individual says you know I'm stealing these because they've been in deep storage nobody else is appreciating their beauty their value and so I'm going to have them and appreciate them in a way that perhaps other people don't. Another justification possibly for somebody who might be ideologically motivated is that they might say well these items of antiquity have been stolen anyway. Because the missing items are thought to be small gems, jewelry, and engravings many may be impossible to recover. If you steal the Rosetta stone or you steal a Fengog it's very hard to sell, everybody knows these pieces so the best thing to do if you are if you have a criminal mind is to steal small objects gold silver jewelry because you can melt down a piece of jewelry you can dismantle take off the diamonds these things then disappear on the market on the black market and sometimes even on the legal market. We may never know the true scale of the damage to this priceless collection but tonight the world's largest museum is in crisis.