British Museum. Image by Gary Roskin

New York Times: “Trying to Recover the British Museum’s Gems, and Its Reputation”

Gary Roskin –
Roskin Gem News Report –

Remember the gem-news last year of ancient cameos stolen from the British Museum and people finding them for sale on eBay? Well, in a recent report written by New York Times reporter Alex Marshall, the British Museum is still working hard to recover not only the stolen gems, but its reputation as well.

Marshall, who spent several hours with the gems recovery team, staff members of the Greek and Roman department, who are still trying to “secure the return of about 1,500 missing artifacts,” reports on what, if any, progress has been made. This is a year after the discovery of the theft (which had taken place over a longer period of time) and the firing/resignation of Hartwig Fischer, the museum’s director. Apparently, the rub with Fischer was all about whether or not the museum tried to keep the news of the robbery in-house and away from the press. But then word got out a year ago, and now here we are.

Of course, and probably more important to the theft, there was the firing of Dr. Peter Higgs, the museum’s former Curator of Mediterranean Cultures, who had worked at the museum for approximately 30 years. And as reported, “after sacking Mr. Higgs, did the museum try to hush it all up?” 

Marshall also reports that the police still haven’t charged anybody for the crime, and the museum, in an effort to salvage its reputation as being one of the safeguards of all things worth protecting, is conducting its own investigations, including searching for items online, at public auctions, and even in other museum’s collections, to get the stolen gems back.

One of the things the museum has NOT done is to provide others in the trade of ancient cameos with a complete detailed list of what was stolen. If they do not know what was stolen, they cannot help the museum in their recovery efforts.

According to Marshall, Harrison’s team has secured the return of 634 items, leaving more than 850 still missing. Harrison said he was “fairly confident” that another 100 gems would rejoin the museum “in the next year or so.”

Members of the British Museum’s recovery team, from left: Alex Watson Jones, Ollie Croker, Thomas Harrison, Sara Aly and Paloma Ley.
Credit…Sam Bush for The New York Times

Alex Marshall is a Times reporter covering European culture. He is based in London. More about Alex Marshall

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