The British Museum released photos online on Tuesday of objects that resemble some of the hundreds of items stolen from its collections and appealed to the public to help find them, reports Reuters and News.ro.
British MuseumPhoto: Tayfun Salci / Zuma Press / Profimedia
“Approximately 2,000” objects have been stolen from the collections of the prestigious British cultural institution in recent years, according to its chairman, George Osborne, a discovery that made a sensation and led to the resignation of its director, Hartwig Fischer, this summer.
The stolen objects are small objects that were not on display and were kept in the museum’s warehouses.
“The majority” belonged to the Department dedicated to Greece and Rome, states the British Museum. It is mainly jewelry, semi-precious stones and glassware, but, on the advice of experts, the museum does not identify and describe them precisely.
The British Museum has already recovered a small part of the stolen treasures
To find them, the museum on Tuesday posted photos of similar items still in its collections, such as a gold bracelet, an engraved ring and a necklace with lion head clasps. The museum is asking anyone “who believes they are or have been in possession of objects belonging to the British Museum or who have information” that could help them to contact the institution.
So far, “60 objects have been recovered and another 300 have been identified and should be returned shortly”, the museum stated in a statement.
He also stated that he registered the stolen objects in the Registry of Lost Works of Art, an international database used by people working in the art world, collectors, insurers and police forces.
The institution said in mid-August that it had fired an employee, while London police said they had questioned a man but had not yet launched any prosecution.
