Director of the British Museum resigns over a wave of theft

Artifacts disappeared from the Museum of London for many years. And Hartwig Fischer now also realizes that “the responsibility for this failure must ultimately lie with the director.”

The Director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, is stepping down with immediate effect in the face of a recent series of thefts. This was announced by the London institution on Friday. In fact, the German only wanted to give up his post the next year. He said in the statement that he had seen, during the past few days, in detail the events surrounding the thefts of the British Museum and the investigation into them.

The museum clearly did not respond to the warnings in 2021 and to the issue that has now emerged as fully and comprehensively as it should have. “Responsibility for this failure must ultimately lie with the manager,” Fisher said, according to the announcement. And the British Museum announced last week that many of the pieces had been stolen or damaged. Among other things, it concerns gold jewelry, jewelry made of semi-precious stones and glass. According to the information, some of the pieces date back to the fifteenth century BC until the nineteenth century AD.

It is suspected that there is a former employee who was dismissed in connection with the events, and legal measures were taken against him. According to media reports, more than 1,000 items were stolen over several years. In addition, there are said to be indications dating back to 2021, for example, that objects from the museum have been offered for sale on an online auction platform. However, the instructions were ignored.

The institution located in London is one of the most important museums in the world. It houses some of humanity’s most important cultural treasures. These include a large part of the Parthenon sculptures, the Rosetta Stone, and Egyptian mummies. (appa)