Behind the theft of more than 2,000 pieceshe British museum announced that will digitize your entire collection and accepted that, according to the surveys, the institution has 2,400,000 uncatalogued or partially cataloged objects that will be duly documented.
According to the research hypotheses of the heist and after having recovered 350 of those piecesauthorities believe that the insufficient registration It was what made it possible for someone who knew about this to gradually steal them undetected for decades.
As reported by the British museum in a statement, the cataloging process will take approximately five years and it will cost £10 million.
During the hearing that took place in parliament for the Museum give details of the robbery and the investigation, it was reported to the committee of the House of Commons that the museum has a million unregistered items (not catalogued) that had to be registered; 300,000 that are registered, but not digitized; and 1.1 million that are digitized, but not photographed.
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Theft from the British Museum: when it happened and who is involved
He August 16thhe British museum announced that he had suffered theft of gold jewelry and semi-precious stone gems and glass that dated from 15th century BC to 19th century AD Nine days later, the director Hartwig Fischer had to give up and his deputy, Jonathan Williamsalso resigned.
Mark Jonesthe museum’s new interim director, also testified in recent days before the committee of the House of Commons. He said the 2,000 uncatalogued stolen items were “really known only to one personand that person decided to take advantage of that.”
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Although for legal reasons the museum does not name the suspect, the media identified him as Peter Higgswho was curator for 30 years and recently in charge of the department of Greece and Rome. Higgs He was fired in July and was questioned by the police, but so far He was not arrested or charged..
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George Osbornepresident of the board of directors of Museumhe told House of Commons Committee that the property of 350 of the 2,000 stolen items It was transferred back to the museum on October 13 thanks to the help of the Danish dealer and specialist Ittai Gradelwho was the first to report the theft more than two years ago.
And, if no legal obstacles arise, those pieces will be displayed in a special exhibition that the institution plans with which it will seek to make the remaining pieces known to the general public to facilitate your recovery.
Source: Ambito
