2023-08-25 17:39:00
The director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer has resigned soon after the series of thefts that have occurred in the museum in recent years. The BBC website reports it, adding last week the museum fired an employee because “some treasures had been stolen”. The report of the thefts, however, had already arrived in 2021. “Evidently – said Fischer – the museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have then”. For this reason, he adds, “the responsibility for this failure must ultimately fall on the director”.
THE REPORT
In February two years ago, the art dealer Ittai Gradel reported that he had seen objects belonging to the British Museum online. But the deputy director of the institution, Jonathan Williams, had replied by email to Gradel that, after careful investigations, “there were no indications of any wrongdoing”.
THE ACCUSATIONS OF GREECE
In recent days, Greece had accused the British Museum of no longer being a secure structure after the discovery of the thefts which, according to a police source quoted by the Times of London, would have begun at least 20 years ago. Despoina Koutsoumba, director of the Association of Greek Archaeologists, said she was convinced that Greek heritage was not safe enough.
THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD
The chairman of the board of directors of the museum, George Osborne, said that the resignation of the director had been accepted, explaining that Fischer behaved “with honour”, choosing to “face the mistakes made”. Fischer, who has held the position since 2016, will step down as soon as the museum board finds an interim replacement pending a new director.
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