2023-08-16 19:35:31
The British Museum in London announced on Wednesday August 16 that it had fired an employee and seized the police after finding the theft of pieces from its collection, mainly jewelry and semi-precious stones, some dating back to the 15th century BC.
“The trustees of the British Museum were extremely concerned to learn earlier this year that items from the collection had been stolen”said in a press release George Osborne, president of the museum known to have the Rosetta Stone or the Parthenon marbles in its collections.
Jewelry and gemstones
He assured that the priority was to “find the stolen parts and that “decisive action” were taken: “We have seized the police, imposed emergency measures to tighten security, set up an independent investigation into what happened and the lessons to be learned, and we have used all the disciplinary powers at our disposal. about the person we hold responsible”.
According to the museum, the majority of objects that“have disappeared, been stolen or damaged”, are “small parts” kept in storage, which have not been on public display recently and serve “mainly for research purposes”.
“This includes gold jewelry, semi-precious stones or glassware dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD”, is it specified.
“This is a very unusual incident”, underlined the director of the museum, Hartwig Fischer, quoted in the press release. “The museum apologizes for what happened, but we have put an end to it”he assured.
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