The director of the British Museum has straight up bounced over the institution’s response to having approximately 2,000 artefacts stolen from right under its nose.
Hartwig Fischer, who is originally from Germany said “It is evident that the British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have in response to the warnings in 2021, and to the problem that has now fully emerged,”
This was after it was tipped off that a bunch of pieces from various collections were being taken and listed on eBay per The Age.
“That is the last thing I would want,” he said.
“Over the last seven years I have been privileged to work with some of the most talented and dedicated public servants.
“The responsibility for that failure must ultimately rest with the director.”
His deputy, Jonathan Williams, has also decided to “step back” pending a review of the situation, per The Independent.
The departure of Williams and Fischer are two additions to a growing list of casualties to arise following the thefts being made public knowledge.
Peter Higgs, a senior curator at the museum was let go of last month.
Higg’s son told the media his father had “not done anything”.
“He’s not happy about it at all. He’s lost his job and his reputation and I don’t think it was fair. It couldn’t have been [him].
“I don’t think there is even anything missing as far as I’m aware,” he told The Telegraph.
PEDESTRIAN.TV is not insinuating that any of these men either are directly or indirectly responsible for the thefts. Rather, they no longer work at the museum.
The museum initially got a heads-up about the missing artefacts back in 2020 during the COVID lockdowns.
An anonymous expert had spotted a Roman onyx jewel on the site that they had definitely seen in the museum’s catalogue and decided to snitch.
The great irony is that the museum had previously stated it was the best place for historical artefacts to be. Its reasoning was it could supposedly take care of them better than the actual nations from which the pieces originally came.
And yes, that was indeed a big showcase of colonial dick-swinging.
There is an ongoing police investigation into the matter.
Image credit: Michael Mulkens via iStock.
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