Artifacts stolen from the British Museum were sold online

The staff, who the British Museum announced on August 16 has been sacked due to responsibility for lost, stolen and damaged artifacts, was claimed to be Peter Higgs, the curator who works in the field of Mediterranean cultures, Hellenistic sculptures and artifacts. .

Higgs’s family, who have been working at the museum for nearly 30 years, announced that the curator was fired last month and that an investigation has been underway against him for some time.

An anonymous foreign expert who spoke to the newspaper said an embossed onyx stone from Roman times sold on eBay for 40 pounds (approximately 1,300 lira).

Noting that its real value ranges from 25,000 (approximately 863,000 lire) to 50,000 pounds (around 1,726,000 lire), the expert noted that the jewels have been waiting to be auctioned on the site since 2016.

The historical artifacts expert said he warned a British colleague about the issue in 2020, who said the museum would not be interested in this information because it was “extremely embarrassing”.

The expert also stressed that photographs of some of the artifacts offered for sale on the site are not in the museum’s catalogue, adding that the seller had that information, so the artifacts in question could have been stolen. .

“THE THIEF BE CAREFUL”

Speaking to the newspaper, another expert said that the person who put the works up for sale “behaved carelessly” uploaded some of the works that could be consulted in the catalogue, and that the jewelry on which the reliefs of women were engraved and Priapus on onyx was one of them.

Noting that the name of the account that sold the work on eBay was “sultan1966”, the experts pointed out that Higgs’ Twitter username, which went by X, was also “sultan1966”.

The experts claimed that they asked the seller this question in 2016, but the seller denied this relationship, noting that the second piece put up for sale was a stone ring with a male relief, the photograph of which was found in the museum’s catalog. .

Despite the museum’s statement Wednesday that the artifacts are in storage for scholarly research, not display, archaeologist Dorothy Lobel King said: “It’s very hard to say which artifacts are not in the museum. The museum has not accepted the missing for two years, but just this year, I haven’t seen any of the reliefs I requested to see for academic research,” he said.

HIGGS RELEASED FROM WAREHOUSE COMPLAINTS

The issue of the allegations came to the fore again in connection with Higgs’ interview in the Sunday Times newspaper in 2002.

In this interview, Higgs complained about the mess and losses in the warehouses, saying, “There’s total chaos.” expressions used.

The British Museum, which bills itself as one of the world’s leading museums with approximately 8 million works in its collection, shared with the public on August 16 that many works have been lost, stolen or damaged, without giving a number.

While it was claimed that an anonymous staff member was fired due to his responsibility, both the London Metropolitan Police and museum management launched an investigation. (AA)