British Museum | The director of the British Museum resigns after the theft of pieces from the institution

2023-08-25 17:56:27

Hartwig Fisher, director of British museumannounced this Friday that has submitted his resignation with immediate effect following the theft of pieces of the institution that have come to light in the last weeks.

The 61-year-old German historian admitted in a statement that the museum “did not respond as fully as it should have” to the alerts that began to appear in 2021 about the loss of items from warehouses from its London headquarters.

This month, the British Museum, which houses some of the most important archaeological collections in the worldfired an employee after noting the loss of gold jewelry, semi-precious stones and glass objects dating from the 15th to the 19th century BC.

British media have pointed to the archaeologist Peter Higgs56, who worked for three decades as an expert on Ancient Greece at the institution, as the alleged culprit in the disappearance of objects, although his family has defended his innocence.

The pieces, which were not in public view, but in collections open only to scholars and researchersthey disappeared from the museum’s warehouses for a long period of years and some of them appeared for sale on internet pages as early as 2016, according to what the press has revealed.

Fisher, who joined the British Museum in 2015 after stints at the Dresden State Art Collections, said the responsibility for the “issue that has now fully surfaced” lies “ultimately with the director”, so has offered his resignation to the board of directors of the institution.

“I will resign as soon as the board has established an interim management team, which will lead until a new director is elected,” he said.

“The situation facing the museum is of the utmost seriousness. I sincerely believe that it will emerge from this moment stronger, but sadly I have come to the conclusion that my presence is proving to be a distraction“, he added.