Newly released documents from two decades ago show correspondence from culture policy adviser Sarah Hunter writing to Blair in April 2003, recommending the political leader privately and publicly “encourage” the British Museum to seek an alternatives to the long-contested ownership issue.

In October of the previous year, then Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis sent to Blair a proposal for a “reunification” plan that would place the marble statues in a purpose-built museum at the Acropolis in time for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

The UK government’s longstanding position—both then and now—is that the Parthenon Marbles are under the management of the British Museum and its trustees. But at the time of Hunter’s writing, Greece was about to host the Olympics and had become president of the European Council. Hunter wrote that these were “good reasons to change tack.”

“The Greek case has become more sophisticated – arguing for a loan rather than restitution of ownership – and contrasts with the BM’s blinkered intransigence to consider any compromises,” she wrote in files released by the National Archives on Friday.

“The marbles could be a powerful bargaining chip in IOC [International Olympic Committee] vote building for a 2012 Olympic bid. The publicity attached to this move could secure the Greek nomination and help garner a wide range of other IOC votes, although we would have to guard against other nations asking for reciprocal acts.”

Hunter acknowledged that trying to make a loan during the museum’s 250th anniversary year would “be met with resistance and much broadsheet angst” but asked Blair about exploring the issue of a sharing agreement, a suggestion from former foreign secretary and SDP leader David Owen.

The Prime Minister agreed, suggesting Owen be put in charge of negotiations in his handwritten reply. “It would give it profile, he has clout, and could probably help with the BM whilst distancing it a little from govt,” Blair wrote.

The released documents also show Owen’s previous correspondence to the Cabinet Office, which had been forwarded to the Prime Minister. The documents said the former foreign secretary had been told “that the host country is consulted by the IOC extensively about the suitability of future applicants and it would not be difficult to get the Greeks to put their support behind a London bid for 2012 as a quid pro quo … ”

News of Hunter and Blair’s correspondence about a possible long-term loan of the Parthenon sculptures was first reported in the Guardian.

Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis after the latter was interviewed by the BBC over the ownership question of the ancient sculptures.

Greece has also recently offered to lend some of its “most important” artifacts to the British Museum to “fill the void” left behind if the London institution returns the Parthenon Marbles to Athens. Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni told the Guardian a promised trade agreement would ensure treasures from Greek antiquities are always displayed at the London institution.

On Thursday, quotations from eight sets of minutes for meetings held between June and November were published by the Art Newspaper. According to the report, June 1 was the first time that the BP deal was discussed. At this point, certain board members said there were conflicts of interest: George Osborne, chair of the board, is partner of an investment banking firm which is used by BP; two other board members also claimed connections to BP.

On June 29, there was a more detailed discussion regarding the BP deal, in which Osborne didn’t participate. “Some trustees indicated strong personal disagreement about accepting money from companies in the sponsor’s line of business, but resolved that these were not such as to require them to recuse themselves from acting as trustees in the decision to be made,” read the minutes, as quoted by the Art Newspaper.

At other meetings, people on staff at the institution raised the possibility that the collection could become endangered by protests that would result from the BP deal. David Bilson, head of security, cautioned in November that “the risk of an attempt to damage the collection might be heightened following the announcement of the corporate sponsorship under discussion and could not be fully avoided without inhibiting public access to the collection.” There had been a climate protest at the National Gallery earlier that month.

The announcement of the BP deal was made on Tuesday. The funding, which will be released over the course of ten years, will be used for the refurbishment and redisplay of the museum’s permanent collection.

The British Museum has had a longstanding history with BP, which has supported the museum since 1996. Not only did the oil company sponsor exhibitions, but it also funded a theater space at the museum in 2000.

Activists have repeatedly protested BP’s financial ties to the British Museum, urging the institution to drop the oil company as a funder through actions staged within the galleries regularly. In June, reports emerged that the British Museum had finally severed ties with BP, but a museum spokesperson denied this.

Museums funded by BP, such as the Tate, London’s National Portrait Gallery, and the British Museum have been the subject of climate-related protests.

So it was a shock when the British Museum announced earlier this year that a staff member had been fired after the discovery of lost, stolen, and damaged items from its collection. The small Greco-Roman items had not been on public display, and many of them had not been catalogued or documented. Since then, news reports have revealed a stunning array of details about what caused such a scandal to take place at the venerated institution.

News outlets identified the fired staff member as senior curator Peter Higgs. A whistleblower tried to alert museum officials in 2021, but Dutch art dealer Ittai Gradel was told the issue was resolved. The items worth $63,000 were reportedly being listed on eBay for as little as $51.

The thefts took place over 30 years, and many of the 2,000 missing items were among millions in the museum’s collection that had not been catalogued or photographed. That last point wasn’t new: a scathing investigation about the British Museum identifying several of its security weaknesses had been published in 2002.

As a result of the extent of the thefts, director Hartwig Fischer immediately stepped down instead of departing early next year as previously announced. Deputy director Jonathan Williams also left following the recent conclusion of an independent review, which had 36 recommendations for the museum’s security, governance, and record-keeping operations. There are plans for a complete documentation of the museum’s collection in five years at a cost of $12.1 million. There were also renewed calls for the repatriation of items such as the Benin Bronzes and the Parthenon Marbles from Nigerian and Greek officials.

During a UK parliamentary committee meeting on October 18, interim director Mark Jones asserted the cataloguing and documentation of the museum’s collection would be done expediently (but not thoroughly), and board chairman George Osborne said the project would be used as a response to future inquiries for the repatriation of items.

“For example, we have a collection of about 1 million lithics or stone fragments from north Africa, and we do not intend to photograph and describe every one of those,” Jones said. “Some big archaeological assemblages will always be treated as assemblages, which means that of the 8 million, we think it is sensible to try to deal with only about 6 million as fully documented objects.”

“Part of our response can be: ‘They are available to you. Even if you cannot visit the museum, you are able to access them digitally.’ That is already available—we have a pretty good website—but we can use this as a moment to make that a lot better and a lot more accessible,” Osborne said.

Taking shortcuts to document a massive archive is the kind of policy choice that explains why poetry translator Yilin Wang found her work was used by the British Museum in an exhibition on Chinese history earlier this year without permission, credit, or compensation. (After Wang raised enough money through crowdfunding to hire legal representation and file a claim in Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, the museum issued a settlement, including acknowledgement that it did not have a policy regarding translations.) But it is also patronizing and insulting for Osborne to assert that access to high-resolution digital images of historic artifacts on a website will enough to satisfy the ongoing cultural loss experienced by many countries.

Modern technologies like 3D printing make it possible to produce extremely accurate, detailed copies of many historical artifacts, and the distinct experience of viewing works in person is why museums continually work so hard to acquire new works, arrange loans for major exhibitions, and stage rehangs.

But the British Museum’s continued stance against repatriation, despite this scandal as well as all the provenance research and growing shifts in museum policies, reflects the conservative nature of its current leadership and the hard-line stance of current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. (Osborne’s Conservative past in politics and media includes six years as Chancellor of the Exchequer and a year as First Secretary of State for Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as a stint as editor of the Evening Standard newspaper from 2017 to 2020.)

To be clear, thefts occur and have occurred at many museums. But for them to happen over such a long period, at such a volume, at one of the world’s most famous, well-funded and prestigious institutions, highlights a long-term, deep-seated level of disorganization and hubris that will take years to repair and recover from.

The odds the institution can repair its reputation will heavily depend on who it chooses for its next leaders, whether its stance on repatriation ever evolves beyond a 60-year-old law, as well as the extent of its investments and policy changes for security, documentation, and governance procedures.

For now, the British Museum can no longer assert it is the safest, best place for millions of artifacts from around the world. Hundreds of items are still missing and its primary suspect is not cooperating with the police investigation.

The British Museum could turn this moment into an opportunity to rebuild relationships with other countries and institutions it has long alienated and antagonized. But based on its history and the statements of its current leadership, it would require a significant shift in foresight and humility to make this happen.

When recommendations from the review were published on Tuesday, there was no mention of deputy director Jonathan Williams. This prompted Ittai Gradel, the antiquities dealer who alerted senior museum officials to the thefts in 2021, to tell the BBC, “He should have gone long ago.”

On August 25, Williams “voluntarily stepped back” from his position until the conclusion of the museum’s external investigation. That announcement was made three hours after Hartwig Fischer resigned as director. Fischer had previously announced in July that he would be stepping away from the position in 2024.

Gradel further commented that “this whole charade of stepping back from duties was pointless from the outset. It was immediately obvious to any observer that [Williams] had displayed incompetence in handling this on a level where the only appropriate response should be that he should lose his position.”

According to a report in the Telegraph, Gradel sent Williams a 1,600-word email in February 2021. The detailed communication identified the seller of ancient artifacts listed on eBay—a senior curator at the museum—and contended that the items were very likely from the museum archives.

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, Williams also claimed Gradel’s allegations were “wholly unfounded.”

Gradel eventually took his concerns to board chairman George Osborne, who later said the museum’s decision to dismiss those claims was a mistake.

The British Museum admitted this past August that 2,000 items had been lost, stolen, or damaged over the course of three decades, prompting an investigation by the Metropolitan Police and the firing of an unnamed staff member.

The items were small pieces of Greco-Roman “gold jewelry and gems of semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century” that had not been on display.

The museum did not disclose to the BBC the date of Williams’s departure, nor whether it was voluntary or the decision of management.

When asked on December 12 about whether Williams would step down, Osborne told the BBC that he would not “come to instant judgements on those sorts of things.”

“It’s absolutely clear that when the museum was warned by Dr. Gradel in 2021, the museum did not respond adequately to that warning,” Osborne told the British public broadcaster. “If we had, we would have got on top of this a couple of years before we did. There are clearly very serious consequences for it.”

Among the 36 recommendations in the report were “more frequent and more extensive inventory checks of the Collection,” including unregistered items, as well as management reviewing “their approach to suspension of employees to give due weight to the protection of the collection, the integrity of its records and the wellbeing of staff.”

Other recommendations concerned audit and risk, governance, and security. The review was led by former corporate lawyer Sir Nigel Boardman, Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi, and Deputy High Court Judge Ian Karet.

The museum’s board of trustees “unanimously accepted” all the recommendations. However, only four pages from the 30-page report were publicly released owing to redaction of the security measures, as well as the ongoing investigation with the Metropolitan Police’s Economic Crime Command.

A press statement from the British Museum said that “over a third of the published recommendations are already underway or completed” under the leadership of interim director Mark Jones, including a five-year plan to fully document and digitize the institution’s entire collection. “This will eliminate any pockets of unregistered objects and ensure that the British Museum’s collection is the most viewed, studied and used in the world.”

The estimated cost of the museum’s documentation and digitization project is £10 million ($12.1 million). The figure was disclosed during oral evidence given by Jones and board chairman George Osborne to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee in October.

“We are not asking the taxpayer or the Government for the money; we hope to raise it privately,” Osborne said.

Notably, the museum plans to utilize the increased digital access to the collection in response to requests for items to be returned or repatriated. “Part of our response can be: “They are available to you. Even if you cannot visit the museum, you are able to access them digitally.” That is already available—we have a pretty good website—but we can use this as a moment to make that a lot better and a lot more accessible,” Osborne said.

The British Museum’s independent review was completed November 30, and the museum publicly announced the results on Tuesday.

Dr. Ittai Gradel is a Dutch antiquities dealer who tried to alert senior museum officials in 2021 about stolen items appearing in eBay listings for as little as $51. His attempts to alert former director Hartwig Fischer and deputy director Jonathan Williams were dismissed.

Fischer publicly stated on August 23 that he took Gradel’s allegations seriously, but then stepped down two days later, instead of in early 2024 as had been previously announced. “I also misjudged the remarks I made earlier this week about Dr Gradel,” Fischer said. “I wish to express my sincere regret and withdraw those remarks.”

Gradel said the museum’s recently published independent review was “ridiculous.”

“They do not have a single word about anyone within the British Museum doing anything whatsoever wrong at any point in time here,” he told the BBC. “There is absolutely zero accountability for anything that has gone wrong here.”

Williams agreed to “step back from his duties” as a result of the thefts, but had remained in the museum’s employ. A report from the BBC this afternoon stated that “the deputy director who oversaw a botched investigation into thefts at the British Museum is leaving the institution.”

Osborne also said that the staff member believed to have stolen or damaged approximately 2,000 objects over 30 years was not cooperating with the institution’s inquiry.

“One of the things that we’ve got to get to the bottom of is exactly the motivation of the individual who we believe is responsible,” Osborne told the BBC on Tuesday. “But he has not been talking or co-operating.”

News reports identified the fired staff member as Peter Higgs, a senior curator who even served as an expert in the case of a 2,000-year-old marble statue that was repatriated to Libya in 2021.

It’s also worth noting how much Gradel has contributed to the museum’s recovery of the stolen items so far. According to the BBC, the museum has identified 651 items, 351 of which have been handed back—all but one of them coming from Gradel.

Gradel told the BBC he bought many of the items in batches, “maybe £50 per gem,” and most were returned based on circumstantial evidence due to lack of catalog information. Damage to the objects included the destruction of approximately 350 gold mountings, “possibly melted down for their scrap value,” as well as tool marks on 140 other items.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak told members of Parliament on November 29 he had canceled a planned meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis in London the day before because the Greek prime minister had reneged on a promise not to use the four-day trip to advocate for the repatriation of the sculptures.

In Sunak’s first public comments, the British PM openly criticized Mitsotakis: “Of course we’re always happy to discuss important topics of substance with our allies, like tackling illegal migration or indeed strengthening our security.

“But when it was clear that the purpose of the meeting was not to discuss substantive issues of the future but rather to grandstand and relitigate issues of the past, it was inappropriate.”

The canceled meeting at Downing Street was scheduled for lunchtime on November 28, and prompted the office of Mitsotakis to issue a statement. “I express my annoyance at the fact that the British Prime Minister canceled our scheduled meeting a few hours before it was due to take place,” it read.

“Greece and Britain are united by traditional ties of friendship and the framework of our bilateral relations is extremely broad.”

Mitsotakis reiterated his country’s position that the famous marble sculptures on display at the British Museum should be returned to Athens. “I had hoped to have the opportunity to discuss them with my British counterpart, along with the major international challenges: Gaza, Ukraine, the climate crisis and migration … Anyone who believes his stance is right and just is never afraid of opposing arguments.”

Last month, British Museum chair George Osborne told a UK parliamentary committee that he had been in direct conversation with the Greek government about the desire to create a “proper partnership” to help resolve the multi-century dispute between the two nations. “That would mean objects from Greece coming here—objects that have potentially never left Greece before and certainly have never been seen in this country—and it would mean objects from the Parthenon collection potentially travelling to Greece,” he said at the time.

The Greek center-right leader filmed an interview with BBC News on November 16 and met with Labor leader Keir Starmer the following evening. The sculptures were central discussion topics during both events.

Mitsotakis’s remarks to BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg included the Greek prime minister reiterating his argument for the repatriation and reunification of the marble sculptures that had been removed by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, instead of the current division of the Parthenon Sculptures between London and Athens.

“Where can you best appreciate what is essentially one monument? I mean, it’s as if I told you that you would cut the Mona Lisa in half and you would have half of it at the Louvre and half of it at the British Museum,” he said. “Do you think your viewers would appreciate the beauty of the painting in such a way?”

Mitsotakis also told Kuenssberg that Greece had “not made as much progress” in the negotiations with Osborne and the British Museum. “But again, I’m a patient man and we’ve waited for hundreds of years and I will persist in these discussions,” he said.

According to a report from The Guardian, officials traveling with Mitsotakis said “there could be no doubt” the Greek prime minister’s comments during the BBC interview had contributed to the cancellation of the meeting with British prime minister Rishi Sunak on November 28.

One senior Conservative source, referring to the sculptures as the Elgin Marbles, told The Guardian: “It became impossible for this meeting to go ahead following commentary regarding the Elgin marbles prior to it.

“Our position is clear – the Elgin Marbles are part of the permanent collection of the British Museum and belong here. It is reckless for any British politician to suggest that this is subject to negotiation.”

In March, Sunak made it clear he did not have plans to return the sculptures to Greece.

“The UK has cared for the Elgin Marbles for generations,” Sunak told reporters on his way to California for a defense and security summit with President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “Our galleries and museums are funded by taxpayers because they are a huge asset to this country.”

“We share their treasures with the world, and the world comes to the UK to see them. The collection of the British Museum is protected by law, and we have no plans to change it.”

The cancellation of the meeting between Greece and Britain also follows the recent announcement from the National Museum of Denmark that it would keep three Parthenon fragments after a request from the Acropolis Museum earlier this year for their custody and ownership.

“In this case, it has been assessed that the objects have a special role for Danish cultural history,” National Museum of Denmark director Rane Willerslev said in a press statement on November 22. “It is also an important point that these are very few objects out of a large amount of fragments preserved from the Parthenon Temple, where the majority of objects are in the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Therefore, we have assessed that the objects have a greater significance at the National Museum than if they were sent to Greece.”

While the majority of surviving Parthenon fragments remain divided between Athens and London, the National Museum’s head of research, Dr. Christian Sune Pedersen, also stated in a press release that the institution’s three fragments are of “great importance for Danish cultural history and for understanding our interaction with the world around us at a time when democracy was taking shape.”

The fragments consist of two marble heads and a horse’s hoof, which came to Denmark between 1688 and 1835. The three fragments are currently on display as part of the museum’s antiquities collection at the Prince’s Palace in Copenhagen.

The museum’s announcement on November 15 noted “Emin will be the first female Royal Academician appointed to the role in the Museum’s history.” Royal Academicians are professionally active contemporary artists and architects under the age of 75 who have been elected as members of the Royal Academy of Arts. Emin was elected in 2007, the same year she represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale. She will replace the contemporary artist, writer, and broadcaster Grayson Perry as a museum trustee nominated by the Royal Academy.

British Museum chair George Osborne called Emin one of Britain’s greatest artists. “Having regenerated her hometown through her will power, I know she will bring incredible energy, insight and creativity to the Board,” he said in a statement. “We are delighted to have her join us.”  

Emin said the institution was one of her favorite museums in the entire world. “I love everything Egyptian,” she said in a press statement. “I’m very proud to be a trustee and I hope my presence will be a positive contribution.”  

Prior to being named a trustee of the British Museum, the London-born artist studied at Maidstone College of Art and the Royal College of Art. Emin’s works include painting, neon signage, drawing, video, installation, as well as photography, needlework, and sculpture. 

She became a professor of drawing at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2011, and was appointed a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013.

Despite the Turner Prize nominee’s experience with bladder cancer, which resulted in an aggressive series of surgeries and the removal of several organs, 2023 has been a busy year for the artist. In June, Emin unveiled three bronze doors at the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery featuring 45 carved brass panels that she secretly worked on, unpaid, for its redevelopment.

She was named one of the female artists to be featured in Tate Britain’s rehang unveiled in May. In August, Emin purchased a derelict seafront building in her hometown of Margate, where she set up an art school and 18-month residency program last year. And earlier this month, Emin opened her first New York solo show in seven years, “Tracey Emin: Lovers Grave” at the new Upper East Side outpost of White Cube.

As first reported by the Art Newspaper on Tuesday, the museum posted on its website the terms of reference of an independent review, which outlines the review team’s responsibilities. The document has determined that the thefts began as early as 1993 and lasted until last year. Available for reading on the museum’s website, it states that the “loss and/or damage of the affected objects occurred during the period from 1993 to 2022.” The British Museum has not identified the suspected thief, but media outlets have named Peter Higgs, a curator in the Greece and Rome department between 1993 and 2022, as a person of interest in the case.

Higgs has been contacted by the police but no charges have been filed. Higgs’ family has denied his involvement in the heist and his son Greg said in a statement quoted by the Art Newspaper: “He’s lost his job and his reputation and I don’t think it was fair…I don’t think there is even anything missing as far as I’m aware.”

Also of note is the fact that though the museum now admits that the thefts continued until 2022, Higgs was promoted to acting head of his department in January 2021, and held the post until January 2023. He was fired this July.

The terms of reference of the British Museum Independent Collection, Security and Governance Review appeared on the museum’s website on November 6 and has three co-chairs: former trustee and attorney, Nigel Boardman; Lucy D’Orsi, the chief constable of the British Transport Police; and Ian Karet an attorney and expert in charity law. The rest of the team is comprised of senior museum employees:  David Bilson, head of security and visitor services; Mark Coady, head of internal audit; and Thomas Harrison, the keeper of Greece and Rome (also known as the head of the Department of Greece and Rome).

The review team is tasked with “identifying a complete list” of the stolen and damaged objects. The directive implies that the museum does not yet known the full extent of the crime, further noting that “the ongoing detailed audit of affected objects is likely to take longer”. The review will also record “failures of controls, processes or policies” which resulted in the losses and to suggest strategies for improvements. They will also evaluate the responses of the board of trustees to determine “whether actions taken or not taken” were sufficient, and if not, what improvement should be implemented. 

According to BBC News, a Danish art dealer alerted the British Museum to stolen items in 2021, but was dismissed by senior staff and told that the “collection is protected.” Ittai Gradel, a specialist in engraved gems of the Graeco-Roman world, was told by director Hartwig Fischer that 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. 

According to the Telegraph, Gradel sent British Museum deputy director Jonathan 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. Williams wrote in response to the email that a “thorough investigation” had found “no suggestion of any wrongdoing”.

However, this August, news broke that an employee had been fired for the alleged theft of artifacts from the museum’s storerooms, raising concerns over its security and reinvigorating calls for the restitution of contested items. Museum leadership has struggled to contain the fallout, which was exacerbated by the resignation of Fische, on August 25. (Mark Jones has since been appointed interim director.) 

In addition to these troubles, the museum has recently faced protests from activists over its philanthropic ties to oil companies, and a series of strikes by its unionized workers.

The project will require 2.4 million records to upload or upgrade and is estimated to take five years to complete. The museum’s announcement on October 18 came after the news 2,000 items had been stolen from the institution by a former staff member, identified in news reports as former curator Peter Higgs. About 350 have been recovered so far, and last month the museum launched a public appeal for assistance.

“Following the discovery that objects have been stolen from the collection, we have taken steps to improve security and are now confident that a theft of this kind can never happen again,” interim director Mark Jones said in a press statement. “It is my belief that the single most important response to the thefts is to increase access, because the better a collection is known – and the more it is used – the sooner any absences are noticed.”

The museum also announced plans for “enhanced access” to its study rooms, where members of the public and researchers can see items from its collection by appointment. As a result of the thefts, the British Museum has changed its rules regarding access to its “strongrooms”, with nobody allowed to go into one on their own any more.

On the same day the British Museum announced its digitization initiative, Jones and board chairman George Osborne gave oral evidence to the UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Their comments included an explanation of how the thefts occurred, policy changes made as a result, and how the museum will handle whistleblower complaints going forward.

They also gave more details about the British Museum’s strategy for digitizing its collection, estimated at a cost of £10 million ($12.1 million). “We are not asking the taxpayer or the Government for the money; we hope to raise it privately,” Osborne said.

The increased digital access to the collection would also be part of the museum’s response to requests for items to be returned or repatriated. “Part of our response can be: “They are available to you. Even if you cannot visit the museum, you are able to access them digitally.” That is already available—we have a pretty good website—but we can use this as a moment to make that a lot better and a lot more accessible,” Osborne said.

After being pressed by committee chair Caroline Dinenage, Osborne said he was “not so surprised” items from the collection went missing, but that trust given to a member of staff was “completely abused” with records altered and “quite a lot of steps taken to conceal” what happened as a result of the “inside job”. He also emphasized that the staff member had been fired.

Osborne also said that the thefts may have taken place over a 20 to 25-year period, and the museum didn’t adequately respond after Dutch art dealer Ittai Gradel sent detailed emails to senior officials in 2021 of stolen items being listed on eBay for as little as $51.

Osborned called the decision to dismiss Dr. Gradel’s claims as a mistake, but said he wasn’t the museum’s chair of trustees at the time.

The chairman confirmed to the parliamentary committee that Fischer decided to retire earlier this summer after the board of trustees had questions about the director’s management, but that Fischer’s public comments about Dr. Gradel’s whistleblower complaint prompted his resignation in August.

The museum’s interim director said many of the stolen objects came the collection of Charles Townley, which was purchased by the museum in 1814. “The objects that we are talking about were thought very lowly of—were despised—in the early 19th century because people realised that many of them were in fact recent and not antique,” Jones said. “It is a real failure that the initial decision not to register them was never rectified.”

The news of the thefts prompted Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni to write in an op-ed for Ta-Nea that “the ‘hospitality’ provided to the Parthenon marbles at the British Museum has always been flawed, incomplete, and problematic”. When asked about this description, Osborne told the committee he had been in direct conversation with the Greek government about the desire to create a “proper partnership”. “That would mean objects from Greece coming here—objects that have potentially never left Greece before and certainly have never been seen in this country—and it would mean objects from the Parthenon collection potentially travelling to Greece,” he said.

Osborne also told the committee that the museum is hiring a search firm to find Fischer’s replacement, and it will advertise “in the next couple of weeks” for the position.

According to the Comité Rodin, this missing sculpture is a six-and-a-half-foot plaster version of Jean d’Aire, one of the six figures in Rodin’s Les Bourgeois de Calais. The Glasgow Museum bought the work in 1901 from Rodin himself, and from June 25 through September 30, 1949, the statue was displayed in Kelvingrove Park in the city’s West End.

The Comité Rodin’s director, Jérôme le Blay, told Agence France-Presse that while the unknown location of the statue is “regrettable, [the situation] must be put into the context of the times.”

Le Blay said plaster works “did not arouse much interest in the 1940s,” and it’s likely that the statue of Jean d’Aire suffered the same fate as another plaster work by Rodin on display at Kelvingrove Park at the same time: it was damaged, and whatever parts remained were transferred to Glasgow Museum Resource Center and found years later.

According to Le Blay, today the statue would be worth around £3 million ($3.69 million). Plaster and bronze versions of Rodin’s Les Bourgeois de Calais are exhibited around the globe, most notably in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Rodin work vanishing from a museum’s holding is not as uncommon is it might sound. A report by the Times of London says the missing Rodin is just one of nearly 1,750 works that have gone missing from Scottish museums.