The British Museum is suing a former curator it says stole 1,800 objects and tried to promote them
LONDON — The British Museum went to court docket Tuesday in opposition to a former curator alleged to have stolen tons of of artifacts from its collections and supplied them on the market on-line.
The museum is suing Peter Higgs, who was fired in July 2023 after greater than 1,800 objects had been found to be lacking. Legal professionals for the museum say Higgs “abused his place of belief” to steal historical gems, gold jewellery and different items from storerooms over the course of a decade.
Excessive Court docket decide Heather Williams ordered Higgs to listing or return any objects in his possession inside 4 weeks. She additionally ordered the disclosure of his eBay and PayPal information.
The museum says it has recovered 356 of the lacking objects to this point, and hopes to get extra again.
“The objects which were stolen from the museum are of cultural and historic significance,” museum lawyer Daniel Burgess stated in written authorized arguments.
Burgess stated the defendant tried to “cowl his tracks” by utilizing pretend names, creating false paperwork, manipulating the museum’s information and promoting artifacts at lower than their worth.
Higgs, who labored within the museum’s Greece and Rome division for greater than 20 years, denies the allegations and intends to dispute the museum’s authorized declare.
He didn’t attend Tuesday’s listening to attributable to poor well being, legal professionals stated.
A separate police investigation into the case is ongoing, and Higgs has not been charged with a criminal offense.
Museum director Hartwig Fischer resigned after the lack of the objects was revealed in August, apologizing for failing to take significantly sufficient a warning from an artwork historian that artifacts from its assortment had been being bought on eBay.
Chairman of trustees George Osborne has acknowledged that the popularity of the 265-year-old establishment has been broken by the episode.
The 18th-century museum in central London’s Bloomsbury district is one in all Britain’s greatest vacationer points of interest, visited by 6 million individuals a 12 months. They arrive to see a group that ranges from Egyptian mummies and historical Greek statues to Viking hoards, scrolls bearing Twelfth-century Chinese language poetry and masks created by the Indigenous peoples of Canada.
