15 December 2023 - 1,5000 unregistered items stolen from British Museum
Hundreds of objects in British Museum defaced, with parts probably sold for scrap, review finds
Lianne Kolirin (CNN, 13/12/2023)
Hundreds of items in the British Museum have been defaced, with valuable parts probably sold for scrap, an investigation has revealed.
British Museum deputy director to leave after thefts inquiry
Katie Razzall (BBC News, 14/12/2023)
The deputy director who oversaw a botched investigation into thefts at the British Museum is leaving the institution, the BBC can reveal.
Dr Jonathan Williams had agreed to step back from his duties until the conclusion of an external review.
Review into British Museum thefts calls for fundamental reforms
Martin Bailey (The Art Newspaper, 13/12/2023)
The independent review into thefts at the British Museum reveals serious problems with the institution’s governance. It calls for the director and trustees to introduce fundamental management reforms. This follows confirmation that 2,000 antiquities were stolen or damaged over a period of more than twenty years.
Why is the British Museum always in trouble?
(The Economist, 30/11/2023)
“The essex antiquities” doesn’t have quite the same ring. The sculptures that were hacked from the Parthenon in the early 19th century go by many names. They are called the “Parthenon Sculptures”, the “Parthenon Marbles” and, by traditionalists, “the Elgin Marbles” but never known by the name of the county in the south-east of England. Yet in 1902 part of the frieze from the Acropolis turned up in a rockery in a charming garden in Essex. Quite how it got there, as Mary Beard, a classicist, puts it, “we have no idea.”