British Museum Launches Webpage to Facilitate Return of Stolen Treasures

The British Museum today inaugurated awebpageaimed at helping it recover the more than 2,000 priceless artifacts that wereallegedly stolenby one of its longtime curators, theArt Newspaperreports. The London institution says that it has already secured the return of sixty of the missing objects and that another three hundred have been identified and are en route to the museum. British Museum officials have not revealed any details surrounding the antiquities that have been returned or are slated for return, but it is suspected that some or all may have been given back by the purported thief.RelatedHELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION SUED FOR “DESTROYING” PAINTER’S LEGACYBMA CREATES PAID INTERNSHIPS HONORING VALERIE MAYNARD Of note, the site does not specifically name or illustrate the objects stolen, but rather describes and provides photographs of the types of treasures that are missing. According to the Art Loss Register—which itself maintains a detailed database of lost and stolen artifacts that is accessible only to professionals in the field and not to the general public—the museum is likely keeping details vague in order to keep any potential holders of the objects from hawking them through more discreet channels, or from dismantling them and marketing the pieces; for example, separating a gem from its setting, melting the latter, and selling both. As well, it is possible that some of the missing artifacts were never photographed or fully catalogued, which would explain why they might have appealed to the light-fingered looter in the first place, and thus would be a source of embarrassment to the institution.

The museum has already been dragged over the coals for itsexcessive reluctanceto investigate the thefts, which eventually resulted in theearlier-than-plannedexit of director Hartwig Fischer, under whose watch the crimes occurred. The British Museum has additionally established a fourteen-member panel of experts specializing in gems and jewelry to aid in the identification and recovery of the objects. Included on the panel are James Ratcliffe, a director of the Art Loss Register, and Lynda Albertson, chief of the Rome-based Association for Research into Crimes against Art. The institution is also working with London’s Metropolitan Police, and is keeping a close eye on the art market, both online and on the ground. The recovery effort is operating out of museum’s department of Greece and Rome, which can be reached atrecovery@britishmuseum.org..