2023-09-01 17:40:32
Buying stolen items from the British Museum on eBay? Ittai Gradel has done it, and repeatedly. At the beginning, in 2014, the Danish art dealer did not know the real origin of the jewels and gems he acquired, sometimes for a pittance – 15 pounds, or €17.50, for a cameo in particular. He relies on the explanations of the seller, who, he tells The crosstells him “having inherited it from his grandfather, who ran a bazaar in York”.
But common points with the catalog of the “British” put the chip in the ear of Ittai Gradel. After cross-checking, he identifies a curator from the prestigious institution, an expert in Greek and Roman antiquities, behind the pseudonym of the seller’s eBay account. From February 2021, he warned Jonathan Williams, the deputy director of the British Museum, in a series of emails, including The cross got a copy.
Nearly 2,000 items stolen
Long unanswered, the art dealer’s warnings are now producing resounding effects: the resignation, on 25 August, of the director of the British Museum, the German Hartwig Fischer, who assumes full responsibility for the “shortcomings” of the museum, then the withdrawal of his deputy, confirming the outbreak of a scandal which brings to light the shortcomings of an institution with worldwide influence.
“About 2,000 pieces” were stolen, had to admit the president of the museum, George Osborne, on the waves of the BBC on August 26. Thefts committed for nearly twenty years internally, in the reserves, singular in their scale but which can “to arrive somewhere else without being talked about”, notes a specialist in crime in the field of works of art. Yet when the story unfolds within the walls of the neoclassical building on Great Russell Street in London’s Bloomsbury, it captures attention and causes an explosion.
This resonates all the more because it occurs in times that are already troubled for the museum. For several months, he has drawn criticism for his refusal to accede to requests for the return of the Parthenon marbles by Greece or the Benin bronzes by Nigeria. Two countries that both see in the theft case a new argument in support of their claims. Also, the British must publish, in the fall, a « master plan » eagerly awaited, supposed to present the project of a major overhaul. Its cost, for the rehabilitation of the buildings alone, amounts to nearly 1 billion pounds (1.16 billion euros), according to the Financial Times.
The British Museum, a “museum of the world, for the world”
Created in 1753, the institution serves as a reference in more ways than one. First for its millions of visitors (4.1 last year), who enjoy free access to the permanent collection. On more than 25,000 square meters of galleries, they can marvel at “an incomparable range of works that embraces ten thousand years of history without omitting a continent”, summarizes the art historian Bénédicte Savoy. Rosetta Stone, Assyrian reliefs, Aztec sculptures… Everything, or almost, is there. “The great wealth of the museum is linked to the expansion of the United Kingdomrecalls the historian Krzysztof Pomian (1). It represents a testimony to British history and to history itself. »
“Museum of the world, for the world”, According to his birth certificate, the “British” also enjoys great prestige among professionals. This one is old. “In the 19th century, the British Museum was at the forefront of research in archeology and the decipherment of scriptures, whether Egyptian inscriptions or cuneiform scripts on clay tablets”, continues Krzysztof Pomian.
Having attracted world specialists in all disciplines, it still offers itself today as a place for sharing knowledge. «Before the others, it has acquired an extraordinarily accurate online database, with well-photographed objects and exhaustive data,” recalls Bénédicte Savoy.
Accountability to the UK Parliament
To these singularities is added another: financed by the State (but also by donations), the museum is responsible to the British Parliament, to which it submits an annual report. A status that exposes him to a right of political scrutiny. If the elected officials have not yet reacted to the thefts – the return to parliament takes place on Tuesday, September 5 – nothing excludes the imminent creation of a commission of inquiry within the House of Commons.
In fact, the affair demonstrates that the museum has failed in its original mission, as it defines itself: “Ensure that the collection is housed securely. » It is all the more shocking as the prestige of the institution feeds expectations. “I am approached by museums, churches, cultural institutions for theft cases, testifies Christopher Marinello, specialist in the recovery of stolen works and director of the firm Art Recovery International. But I couldn’t expect that at the British Museum. There are serious shortcomings in the management of collections. »
Incomplete catalogs
First failure: the non-referencing of certain objects. “In the pieces purchased by Ittai Gradelsays the Reverend Martin Henig, honorary researcher at the Oxford University School of Archeology, some seem to come from a collection acquired by the museum in 1880 which would never have been catalogued. In the digital age, it is inexcusable not to have photos of the entire collection. »
A provision that could mitigate the risk of theft. But how do you inventory the entirety of a collection of 8 million objects down to the shard? “There is always more urgent than completing the catalogsnotes an expert in the search for works of art. The next exhibition, for example. It is a question of resource allocation. »
Flaws in the decision chain
Another flaw revealed by the case: the reaction time of the British Museum. Five months after his first email, Ittai Gradel was told by the deputy director that ” the museum (had) carried out a thorough investigation (…) which led to the conclusion that the objects concerned are all accounted for and that no member of the museum staff was suspected of having committed any wrongdoing”.
It was only after notifying a member of the board of directors, in October 2022, that “things have changed”explains the art dealer, finally contacted by the police, with whom he cooperates.
“We started to find stolen parts,which is a clearing in the storm”, George Osborne told the BBC on August 26. In the same concern for appeasement, the board of directors would have already chosen a new deputy director: Carl Heron, at the head of the scientific research of the museum. “A highly respected authority”, according to an internal email revealed by The Telegraph. Nothing less is needed in this storm.
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The British Museum in figures
Founded in 1753, the British Museum, opened to the public in 1759, was the world’s first free public national museum. It now preserves nearly 8 million works from prehistory to the present day, from six continents.
About 4.5 million works are available for consultation through its online database.
Among its major pieces are the Rosetta Stone, today claimed by some voices in Egypt, the Parthenon marbles claimed by Greece, the Nereid monument brought from Xanthos (southern Turkey), the Assyrian winged bulls of Khorsabad, the Babylonian cylinder of Cyrus, Aztec treasures and Mayans, a monumental statue from Easter Island…
In 2022, the museum received nearly 4.1 million visitors.
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