A Danish art dealer alerted the British Museum to allegedly stolen items in 2021, but was dismissed by senior staff and told “collection is protected”, according to reports by BBC News, The New York Times and The Telegraph.
Art historian Ittai Gradel, a specialist in engraved gems of the Graeco-Roman world, was told by museum director Hartwig Fischer there was “no evidence to substantiate the allegations” that missing and stolen objects from its collection were being sold on the e-commerce website eBay. British Museum deputy director Jonathan Williams also told Gradel by email that a “thorough investigation” had found “no suggestion of any wrongdoing”, adding that institution’s “collection is protected”.
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The museum’s press release about the missing, stolen, and damaged items said a staffer had been fired and is being investigated, but did not name the individual.The Times of London and The Daily Telegraph identified the fired employee as Peter Higgs. The Greek and Roman antiquities curator had been employed at the museum for three decades and even served as an expert on a trafficked sculpture found by UK customs at Heathrow Airport in 2013. Members of Higgs’ family have denied the allegations.
According to the Telegraph, Gradel sent Williams a 1,600-word detailed email in February 2021, about a Roman cameo that was offered for sale in an eBay auction, as well as other ancient artifacts.
Gradel’s email, which was reviewed by the Telegraph, included a detailed description of how he had identified the seller, allegedly Higgs. Gradel said if Higgs was not the thief, it was someone else with access to the museum’s archives who was stealing items and impersonating the senior curator online.
While Williams told Gradel on March 2 that the matter would be investigated, Gradel had not received a respond by the end of June, prompting the art dealer to write a follow-up email to William and send a copy of his original email to Fischer, the museum’s director.
On July 12, 2021, Willams replied to Gradel that an investigation had found “the objects concerned are all accounted for”, and the results of a security review found “procedures are robust and that the collection is protected”. Later the same month, William also said Gradel’s allegations were “wholly unfounded”.
The Telegraph‘s report also describes in detail email correspondence between Gradel, trustee Paul Ruddock, chairman George Osborne, and Fischer, including Fischer’s insistence the items were not missing from the collection.
Reports from The Telegraph have also said “more than 1,500” items are now being investigated, and that one item worth $64,000 was offered on eBay for as little as $51.
An eBay spokesperson told BBC News: “Our dedicated law enforcement liaison team is in close contact with the Metropolitan Police and is supporting the investigation into this case.
“eBay does not tolerate the sale of stolen property. If we identify that a listing on our site is stolen, we immediately remove it and work with law enforcement to support investigations and keep our site safe.”
Minister of Parliament Ben Bradshaw, who also served as culture secretary between 2009 and 2019, called the latest allegations against the British Museum “extremely serious”.
“These are priceless objects that belong to the nation, and they should be safe,” he told BBC News, adding the potential for damage to the country’s reputation due to media coverage around the world. “The Culture department will be wanting to assure itself from the board of trustees and George Osborne, that it has the governance in place to protect these items now and in the future, to prevent anything like this ever happening again.”
The museum’s ability to protect and secure items in its collection have already prompted questions from Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni, especially over the contested provenance of the Parthenon Marbles.
Mendoni told the Greek newspaper To Vima that “the loss, theft, [and] deterioration of objects from a museum’s collections is an extremely serious and particularly sad event” and that her office was monitoring the situation. “When such incidents occur, there is obviously a question of safety and integrity [around] all of the museum’s exhibits,” she said.
Despina Koutsoumba, president of the Association of Greek Archaeologists, also expressed concerns during an interview with BBC Radio 4. “We want to tell the British Museum that they cannot any more say that Greek culture heritage is more protected in the British Museum,” she said. “It is obvious that it is very well-protected in Greece and not in the British Museum.”
Only a few weeks before the British Museum had issued a press statement about the missing, stolen, and damaged items, it had announced that Fischer would step down as the museum’s director in 2024. While there are already discussions about the possibility of that announcement being tied to the thefts, the museum’s chairman strongly denied it, calling Hartwig a “much respected director”.
“I have been very clear – as has Hartwig – that his decision was not connected to our announcement last week,” Osborne told BBC News.
On August 23, a museum spokesperson emailed a written statement from Fischer to ARTnews about these allegations and how the institution took them “incredibly seriously”, but also issued allegations against Gradel.
“Concerns were only raised about a small number of items, and our investigation concluded that those items were all accounted for,” Fischer wrote. “We now have reason to believe that the individual who raised concerns had many more items in his possession, and it’s frustrating that that was not revealed to us as it would have aided our investigations.”
Fischer said the museum carried out a full audit in 2022 that revealed “a bigger problem” and he reported his concerns to the institution’s trustees, resulting in a call to Metropolitan Police and the firing of a staff member.
“I am clear that at every step my priority has been the care of the incredible British Museum collection, and that continues today – with our commitment to learning lessons from the independent review, our determination to help the police with their criminal investigation, and our focus on the recovery programme.”