British Museum to Digitize Collection in Wake of Inside Thefts

Closing the barn door firmly behind the horse, the British Museum yesterday announced that it would digitize its entire collection—much of which was previously uncatalogued—and make it available to the public online. The digitization is meant to ward off futuretheftsof the type alleged to have been carried out by veteran curator Peter Higgs, who is estimated to have stolen some 2,000 artifacts from the museum, only 350 of which have been recovered to date. British Museum chair George Osborne, speaking on October 18 before the British House of Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Committee, revealed for the first time that the thefts had taken place over the past twenty to twenty-five years.RelatedHELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION SUED FOR “DESTROYING” PAINTER’S LEGACYBMA CREATES PAID INTERNSHIPS HONORING VALERIE MAYNARD “Following the discovery that objects have been stolen from the collection, we have taken steps to improve security and are now confident that a theft of this kind can never happen again,” said the museum’s interim director, Mark Jones, in a statement. “It is my belief that the single most important response to the thefts is to increase access, because the better a collection is known – and the more it is used – the sooner any absences are noticed.” The digitization effort will encompass some 2.4 million objects and is expected to take five years to complete. The project’s cost is estimated at £10 million ($12 million), which Osborne said would be covered by the museum through fundraising.

The measure is one of several that the institution is taking to protect itself from theft, among them “enhanced access” to study rooms, where researchers and members of the public can view items by appointment. The museum additionally imposed a rule barring staff members from entering its so-called strongrooms alone. It is thought that Higgs was able to steal from the museum unnoticed over a span of more than two decades by entering strongrooms unattended, and taking objects that had not been registered. By placing its entire collection online, the institution also hopes to fend off demands for the repatriation of objects it holds, which have only increased or intensified following the reputation-damaging thefts. “Part of our response can be: ‘They are available to you. Even if you cannot visit the museum, you are able to access them digitally,’” said Osborne.

He acknowledged, however, that the museum was continuing to work toward a “proper partnership” with Greece, which for forty years has beenshouting for the returnof its Parthenon marbles, held by the British Museum..