British Museum Fires Worker Accused of Stealing Gold and Gems

The British Museum has fired a workers member on suspicion of looting jewels from a storeroom and began a assessment of its safety practices, the museum introduced Wednesday.

The employee, who has not been named, stole or broken objects together with gold jewellery and “gems of semi-precious stones and glass” courting from the fifteenth century B.C. to the nineteenth century A.D., the museum mentioned in a news launch.

London’s police pressure mentioned in a press release that it was conducting an investigation, however that there had not been any arrests and that its “enquiries continue.”

Because of the police investigation, the museum wouldn’t touch upon the worth of the lacking objects or give any extra particulars about them, a museum spokeswoman mentioned in a phone interview. The museum mentioned that almost all of the objects have been small items saved in a storeroom. None had lately been on public show, the museum mentioned, including that “they were kept primarily for academic and research purposes.”

George Osborne, the museum’s chair, mentioned within the news launch that the museum was now working to recuperate the objects and would “do whatever it takes, with investment in security and collections records, to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

“It’s a sad day for all who love our British Museum, but we’re determined to right the wrongs and use the experience to build a stronger museum,” Osborne mentioned.

The thefts are removed from the primary on the London establishment. In 2017, the museum introduced that six years earlier it misplaced a diamond Cartier ring price nearly one million {dollars}. In 2004, 15 items of Chinese jewellery have been stolen in opening hours, whereas in 2002 a 2,500-year-old Greek marble head was taken from atop a plinth.

Several different European museums have additionally been victims of theft lately. Last 12 months, thieves stole a cache of virtually 500 historical gold cash from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, Bavaria. In 2019, a heist at Dresden’s Green Vault museum led to about €100 million, some $108 million, price of jewels going lacking. In May, 5 males have been convicted for his or her position in that heist, and far of the jewellery has been recovered.

Christopher A. Marinello, a lawyer who works on recovering stolen artwork, mentioned in a phone interview that thefts from museums have been “a big problem” worldwide and infrequently concerned workers. Still, he added, “for this to happen at the British Museum is extremely embarrassing and alarming.”