what the thefts mean for the British Museum’s future plans for the collection

The British Museum is now going through its most critical disaster for many years. On 28 July got here the shock announcement that the museum’s director, Hartwig Fischer, is to “go away his put up” subsequent yr. Then, on 16 August, there was the surprising information that an undisclosed variety of gadgets, together with historical jewelry, had been stolen, with an unnamed member of employees being dismissed.

A day later, the press revealed that it was Peter Higgs, a trusted senior Greek and Roman curator, who had labored on the museum for over 30 years. In 2021-22 he served as performing keeper (head) of the division, that means that he was truly promoted after the primary allegations had been made—and he continued to move the division after additional proof was given to the director. George Osborne, the chairman of the trustees, has stated that the museum has now “used all of the disciplinary powers accessible to us to take care of the person we imagine to be accountable”.

On 24 August a Metropolitan Police spokesperson stated: “A person [unidentified] has been interviewed by investigating officers. No arrests have been made. We have now labored carefully with the British Museum and can proceed to take action. Inquiries proceed.”

A current report in The Day by day Telegraph cites an uncorroborated supply who claims that greater than 1,500 objects—presumably “nearer to 2,000”—have gone lacking or have been destroyed. The gadgets are stated to be price “hundreds of thousands of kilos”. They had been in a museum retailer, not on show, and had been taken over a interval of years.

All this comes on the worst attainable second, because the museum is getting ready to launch its masterplan for the entire refurbishment of its constructing and a full redisplay of its assortment. This much-needed venture will value many a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of kilos and is unlikely to be accomplished till after 2050.

Publication of the masterplan has been delayed on a number of events, and till Fischer’s alternative arrives—maybe subsequent summer time—the museum will in observe have a management missing full authority. Fischer’s exit additionally comes at a time when restitution points are extremely controversial, notably over the Parthenon Marbles and the Benin Bronzes.

Critical questions

In the meantime, the museum should take care of the instant challenge of the theft. Critical questions are already being requested about why Fischer, his deputy Jonathan Williams, and the museum chair George Osborne and his predecessor, Richard Lambert, apparently dismissed allegations of theft in 2021 and 2022, and did not correctly examine. The Division for Tradition, Media and Sport (DCMS) advised The Artwork Newspaper that it “was knowledgeable in January [2023] that the museum was wanting into attainable irregularities in sure collections”.

Fischer, a German citizen and beforehand the director of Dresden State Artwork Collections, took over as director of the British Museum in April 2016, following the departure of Neil MacGregor. His primary process was to develop a complete masterplan for the constructing and its redisplay.

A yr after his arrival, Fischer gave an interview to The Artwork Newspaper, setting out his imaginative and prescient. Admitting that for guests to the museum “it isn’t simple to get a complete understanding” of key cultures, he identified for instance that Egyptian sculptures are on the bottom ground and mummies on the higher degree. Some geographical areas, notably Oceania, Australia and Latin America, are “partially or practically wholly absent” within the presentation. Fischer needed a long-term venture to refresh and rethink the shows, to current a extra world reasonably than a European and Mediterranean view of tradition.

In his interview, Fischer advised that a lot would change throughout his directorship however, greater than seven years on, the masterplan has nonetheless not been revealed. Progress proved slower than anticipated, exacerbated by the beginning of Covid-19 restrictions in March 2020 and, extra lately, by the theft.

The announcement of Fischer’s departure adopted a closed session of the trustees’ assembly on 29 June, when the common annual analysis passed off on the director’s targets and remuneration. However the assembly was dominated by a confidential dialogue concerning the theft, ensuing within the departure assertion six weeks later. Among the many trustees is Mary Beard, a distinguished classicist, who will need to have been extraordinarily disturbed about losses from the Division of Greece and Rome.

On 16 August it was publicly introduced that gadgets had been “lacking, stolen or broken”, together with “gold jewelry and gems of semi-precious stones and glass courting from the fifteenth century BC to the nineteenth century AD”.

The assertion added: “A member of employees has been dismissed, and the Museum will now be taking authorized motion towards the person. The matter can also be beneath investigation by the Financial Crime Command of the Metropolitan Police.” Our understanding is that Higgs was dismissed in early July.

When the loss was first introduced on 16 August a museum spokesperson said that “within the curiosity of working alongside the Metropolitan Police, we won’t be commenting any additional on this case at this stage.”

Nonetheless, every week later Fischer did make further feedback: “When allegations had been delivered to us in 2021 we took them extremely severely, and instantly arrange an investigation. In 2022 we launched into a full audit – which revealed a much bigger downside. I reported my issues to the trustees, and collectively we agreed to name within the police. At each step my precedence has been the care of the unimaginable British Museum assortment.”

Unbiased evaluation

An impartial evaluation has now been arrange, led by Nigel Boardman—a lawyer and British Museum trustee till 2017—and Lucy D’Orsi, chief constable of the British Transport Police. They may “kickstart—and help—a vigorous programme to get better the lacking gadgets”, in addition to making suggestions for future safety preparations.

Amongst its duties can be to look at the museum’s written “Process for the Reporting of Unlocated and Misplaced Objects”, to see whether or not it was correctly carried out—and whether or not it must be reworded to deal extra rigorously with suspected losses.

The allegations concerning the theft had been first made by the Danish gem skilled Ittai Gradel, who reported the matter to Williams in February 2021 and 4 months later to Fischer. On a matter of this gravity, the museum chairperson (then Richard Lambert) presumably ought to have been knowledgeable, since possession of the gathering is vested with the trustees.

After Gradel’s issues had been seemingly largely ignored by the museum, he wrote in October 2022 to Osborne, who had taken over as chairperson in October 2021. Gradel was then advised that “there isn’t any proof to substantiate the allegations”.

It may need been thought that by this time the DCMS, which is the museum’s primary funder, ought to have been knowledgeable. Below the “Administration Settlement”, the museum will need to have “efficient controls to stop fraud and theft” and has an obligation to report back to the DCMS “all instances of tried, suspected or confirmed fraud… as quickly as they’re found.” But it surely was solely in January 2023 that DCMS was knowledgeable, though it had certainly been suspected earlier.

It comes as a shock that Osborne said within the 16 August theft announcement that he and his fellow trustees solely “learnt earlier this yr that gadgets of the gathering had been stolen”. Osborne had been warned concerning the theft earlier, by October 2022.

In January 2023 Tom Harrison arrived to take over from Higgs, then performing keeper, as the top of the Division of Greece and Rome. Harrison has subsequently been thrust into serving to to take care of the theft and its damaging ramifications for his division.

Unusually, no particulars of the gadgets misplaced have been launched. Usually pictures of stolen gadgets are revealed after a museum theft, to alert the commerce and public, thereby growing the possibilities of a restoration. There could also be particular components that might make it imprudent to take action within the British Museum case, nevertheless it appears extra possible that the curators are merely unsure about what precisely has gone due to a scarcity of complete information. The few recognized gadgets may very well be the tip of the iceberg.

Though the theft is now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police, it must be burdened that nobody has but been arrested or charged, suggesting that the state of affairs is complicated. Higgs’s son Greg advised the media: “I don’t assume it [his departure] was honest. I don’t assume there may be even something lacking so far as I’m conscious.”

Osborne stated within the announcement of the theft: “Our precedence is now threefold: first, to get better the stolen gadgets; second, to seek out out what, if something, might have been achieved to cease this; and third, to do no matter it takes, with funding in safety and assortment information, to ensure this doesn’t occur once more.”

Lacking masterplan

The theft will undoubtedly have a destructive affect on progress with the masterplan, which till final yr had been dubbed the “Rosetta Undertaking”. (As The Artwork Newspaper reported in Might 2023, this identify was quietly dropped due to Egyptian restitution requires the Rosetta Stone.)

In July 2022 Osborne said within the museum’s annual report that particulars concerning the masterplan can be revealed “later this yr”. In November he introduced: “Three weeks in the past the trustee physique agreed to a masterplan that can see the entire reimagination of the British Museum. The main points can be revealed subsequent spring.”

Spring then handed and the masterplan “can be revealed this autumn”, in keeping with the 28 July assertion on Fischer’s departure. One can solely speculate, however Fischer and Osborne might nicely have felt that this summer time would have been an inauspicious second to launch the venture and its huge fundraising marketing campaign.

The masterplan can be extremely bold due to the sheer dimension of the museum’s Bloomsbury constructing and its huge assortment (with simply over 50,000 objects on show). The announcement on Fischer’s departure says that this can take “a number of a long time” and be a “multigenerational venture”.

That is prone to be the most important UK museum enterprise within the first half of this century. Not less than within the quick time period, elevating funds is now prone to show much more difficult. The controversies over Sackler and BP have emphasised the sensitivities that include company funds; Covid-19 has made fundraising tougher; and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine guidelines out most potential Russian donors.

Osborne has been hoping for presidency monetary help for the masterplan, within the type of a one-off grant. Discussions on this have proved gradual and the March trustee minutes, obtained by The Artwork Newspaper beneath the Freedom of Info Act, check with “the challenges across the launch of presidency funding and the associated danger”.

Though nobody may very well be extra educated about authorities funds than Osborne, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer (2010-16), the Treasury can be reluctant to help the museum till the theft challenge has been satisfactorily resolved.

Potential non-public and company donors are additionally prone to be involved about supporting a museum that allowed its assortment to be threatened. It’ll subsequently be tough to start critical fundraising till the impartial evaluation into safety has been accomplished—and any essential reforms launched.

Regardless of the timing of the masterplan announcement, Fischer won’t now be chargeable for its supply. That must basically await the arrival of his successor, presumably subsequent summer time.

Following the masterplan announcement, a global competitors can be launched to pick an architect. The primary space of the museum to be tackled is prone to be the western galleries on the bottom ground, which at current show Egyptian, Assyrian and Greek antiquities.

Parthenon implications

One other long-standing challenge that is still unresolved is the Parthenon Marbles, the place a gulf might have opened up between Fischer and Osborne. Final February Osborne advised {that a} mortgage partnership is perhaps negotiated with Greek museums: “There’s a method ahead the place the sculptures may very well be seen each in London and in Athens, and that can be a win-win for Greece and for us.”

Fischer has been much less vocal concerning the Marbles, seemingly sharing the imaginative and prescient of his predecessor, MacGregor: a group of and for the world, to be saved collectively in perpetuity. Below the British Museum Act of 1963, de-accessioning is often prohibited. Fischer has typically put much less emphasis on restitution and extra on worldwide collaboration and loans. For him, the masterplan represents a possibility to make the museum extra of a worldwide establishment, “via dialogue”.

Progress on the Marbles has been gradual and little doubt the theft will strengthen the resolve of the Greek facet. Lina Mendoni, the tradition minister, has already stated that the controversy over the stolen gadgets means there are questions over “the credibility of the museum”. And that the continuing furore “reinforces the everlasting and simply demand of our nation for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles on the Acropolis Museum in Athens”, she added.

The British Museum’s different main restitution challenge is the Benin Bronzes. Progress has once more been gradual, due partly to the fragile query of whether or not any loans must be to the Nigerian state or the Benin oba (king). It now appears that the Nigerian state might cede this privilege to the oba.

By way of media protection of the museum throughout Fischer’s interval, the query of BP sponsorship has loomed massive. The power firm’s long-term sponsorship settlement got here to an finish earlier this yr and was not renewed, most likely by mutual settlement. Questions are nonetheless being raised over whether or not the BP Lecture Theatre, opened in 2000, must be renamed.

Apparently, Fischer says that after leaving he hopes to work on the problem of museums and local weather change, suggesting that he personally feels strongly concerning the significance of the topic, even when not sharing the views of the protesters’ goals and techniques. He has additionally pushed for the British Museum to turn into greener, utilizing extra sustainable power sources.

On reflection, Fischer’s principal long-term achievement is prone to be seen because the creation of the British Museum’s new storage facility, changing its current one at Blythe Home, in west London. Constructed with £50m of presidency cash, it’s 40 miles away in Shinfield, simply south of Studying. To be referred to as the British Museum Archaeological and Analysis Assortment (BM_ARC), it’s now anticipated to open late subsequent yr, just a few months after Fischer’s departure.

And what are Fischer’s private plans? Within the departure announcement he commented: “I’m excited concerning the subsequent part of my profession, shifting past the institutional framework of a single museum to interact within the rescue and preservation of cultural heritage in instances of local weather disaster, battle, battle, and violence”.

Recruitment for Fischer’s successor will start within the subsequent few weeks, following the following trustees’ assembly in early October. The search can be worldwide, and the British Museum might nicely find yourself being headed by one other European. The brand new director’s primary process can be to be sure that safety has been tightened, paving the best way to maneuver ahead with the masterplan.