Last month a member of staff was sacked and police launched an investigation after around 2,000 treasures were reported “missing, stolen or damaged” over a “significant” period of time.

The museum has now said most are Greek and Roman gems and jewellery, and shared pictures of similar items.

Sixty objects have been returned.

In a statement, the museum added that 300 more had been “identified and [are] due to be returned imminently”.

  • imAadeshOP
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    9 months ago

    Have they tried looking at the place where all stolen goods from the world are stored?

  • Lexam@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    Authorities “We’re looking for an antiquities thief do you know him?”

    The British Museum “Of course I know him, he’s me.”

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    9 months ago

    Yes he has all the jokes about this being ironic.

    Except unless the thief returns the items to the original owners then it’s not some vigilante justice, it’s just theft.

    Anyway you can hardly say some Roman jewellery doesn’t belong in the UK. It was probably dropped in England.

  • Babalugats@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    So they want help stealing back the stuff that they stole in the first place.

    Many countries would probably pay the ‘thieves’ to have them back where they belong.

    • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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      9 months ago

      No, some rich asshole will put it on their yacht to never be seen again. If you think that’s better than them being in a museum that is free to visit, I don’t know what to tell you

      • Babalugats@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        First of all, they are in a museum that’s only free to visit of you live near that museum. They are already stolen. For the rest of the world that actually owns them, they already metaphorically have ‘some rich asshole who got them and put them on their yacht never to be seen again’.

        For many of the countries that own them, there will be thousands of inhabitants that may never be able to afford to travel to the UK to view them. It’s unlikely that the British museum will ever tour with them, as once they arrive in almost any country, they will likely stake a claim to have their property back.

  • Kalash@feddit.ch
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    9 months ago

    There is someone with more expertise in stealing artefacts than the British Musueum?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    The British Museum has asked the public to help identify and recover ancient artefacts that have gone missing from its collection.

    Last month a member of staff was sacked and police launched an investigation after around 2,000 treasures were reported “missing, stolen or damaged” over a “significant” period of time.

    In an attempt to recover the rest, it has put details and images of the types of objects that are missing on its website.

    As well as classical Greek and Roman gems, there are rings, earrings and other pieces of jewellery - some dating back to the late Bronze Age.

    The museum also said said it would work alongside an international panel of experts to identify and recover the items, and had placed them on the Art Loss Register.

    James Ratcliffe, director of recoveries at the Art Loss Register, said the museum had “carefully balanced the need to provide information to the public to assist the recovery efforts with the fact that providing too much detail risks playing into the hands of those who might act in bad faith”.


    The original article contains 367 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 51%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!