The former British finance minister described the missing exhibits as small pieces of gold and precious stone jewelry that have not been publicly displayed.
Osborne admitted in a conversation with the public broadcasting organization BBC that it is still not known exactly how many exhibits have disappeared.
“I would estimate around 2,000, but I have to say it’s a very rough number,” Osborne said, adding that some of the stolen items have already been recovered.
Hartwig Fischer, the director of the British Museum, reportedly resigned on Friday, admitting that the museum had not responded adequately to news of the exhibits’ disappearance.
Located in central London, the museum houses art and historical artefacts from around the world, known for such exhibits as the Rosetta Stone and the so-called Parthenon Marble.
Last week, the museum announced that an employee had been fired after it was found that artefacts in the collection were “missing, stolen or damaged” and reported to the police.
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Thursday that a man had been questioned in the case, but no arrests had been made.
The e-mail correspondence obtained by the public broadcasting organization BBC shows that in 2021, an art dealer informed the museum about artifacts sold on the auction site “eBay”, but this warning was ignored.
Osborn attributed the inappropriate reaction of the museum management to the news about the possible theft of exhibits to the corporate culture, as a result of which no one was able to believe that their own could steal the museum.
2023-08-26 10:42:00
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