Officials at London’s British Museum were in 2021 alerted by an outside source that someone within the institution was stealing priceless artifacts and selling them on eBay, according to multiple sources. Art historian Ittai Gradel, an expert in Greco-Roman engraved gems, contacted deputy director Jonathan Williams via email in February 2021 after becoming suspicious of the provenance of a Roman cameo offered on the e-commerce site. Gradel fingered veteran curator Peter Higgs as the thief, offering detailed evidence against him and suggesting that if he were not the culprit, another museum employee was impersonating him. Williams promised to investigate the matter but then dropped communication. Gradel wrote again months later, and this time sent a copy of his original email to British Museum director Hartwig Fischer. Williams in July wrote to Gradel to confirm that “the objects concerned are all accounted for,” further assuring him that “procedures are robust and that the collection is protected.”
The matter seemingly rested there, until this past July, when Higgs was fired following the discovery that a number of invaluable objects had gone missing from the London institution’s storeroom beginning in 2016. The suspected thief is one of the world’s top authorities on ancient Greek and Mediterranean artifacts and was a member of the British Museum’s “Monuments Men” team; he had been with the institution for more than three decades. Also in July, it was announced that Hartwig Fischer, who had since 2016 served as director of the museum, would depart in 2024. Speculation has swirled that Fischer’s departure is tied to the mishandled theft allegations. The British Museum has firmly denied that this is the case.
In addition to the supposed loss of the jewels, the museum must now contend with the loss of its reputation as a secure repository of some of the world’s most precious treasures, including the hotly contested Parthenon marbles, which Greece would very much like to have back.
“These are priceless objects that belong to the nation, and they should be safe,” Minister of Parliament Ben Bradshaw, England’s former culture secretary, told BBC News. “The Culture department will be wanting to assure itself from the board of trustees and [British Museum chair] George Osborne, that it has the governance in place to protect these items now and in the future, to prevent anything like this ever happening again.”
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