'Highly unusual' theft of pieces from British Museum collection, employee fired

The British Museum in London announced on Wednesday August 16 that it had fired an employee and seized the police after finding the theft of pieces from its collection, mainly jewelry and semi-precious stones, some dating back to the 15th century BC.

"The trustees of the British Museum were extremely concerned to learn earlier this year that items from the collection had been stolen," George Osborne, chairman of the museum known for having the Stone of Rosette or Parthenon Marbles. He assured that the priority was to find the stolen parts and that "decisive measures" had been taken: "We have seized the police, imposed emergency measures to reinforce security, set up an independent investigation into what happened and the lessons to be learned from it, and we have used all the disciplinary powers we have in relation to the person we hold responsible".

According to the museum, the majority of the objects which "have disappeared, have been stolen or damaged", are "small pieces kept in reserve, which have not been exposed to the public recently and serve" mainly for research purposes.

This includes “gold jewelry, semi-precious stones or glassware dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD”, it is specified. "This is a very unusual incident," museum director Hartwig Fischer said in the statement. "The museum apologizes for what happened, but we have put an end to it," he said.