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Ira Gershwin’s lyrics, from the tune “A Foggy Day (in London City)”, took on an surprising resonance final month, when murky goings on on the British Museum had been revealed within the nationwide press. A Each day Telegraph unique (on 17 August), figuring out a senior museum curator, Peter Higgs, allegedly accountable for the theft of historic gold jewelry, onyx gems and glassware from the museum over a few years, offered essentially the most damaging revelation. (Higgs’s son says he’s harmless of wrongdoing.) It got here sizzling on the heels of a British Museum press launch, unexpectedly issued at 5.45pm (UK time) on 16 August, which had been prompted by the Telegraph’s earlier enquiries into gold objects going lacking from the gathering. A number of of these things had already been offered on eBay.
The museum’s press launch on this “police matter” is actually an extended scroll of quotes from its chair, George Osborne, director, Hartwig Fischer, and Sir Nigel Boardman (the latter, a former trustee, who will likely be co-leading an impartial overview). Osborne’s statements expressed the trustees’ excessive concern, whereas additionally stressing that that they had solely discovered concerning the scenario “earlier this 12 months”. Fischer’s quote accommodates an apology on the museum’s behalf. In accordance with our data, the thefts might have begun as way back as 2014, and senior workers on the museum had been alerted by 2021. Solely now was the fog of inside secrecy lifting, with the museum trustees initiating motion towards the person accountable, having reported the matter to the Metropolitan Police.
Information of the theft had come simply 19 days after the museum introduced the shock resignation of Fischer. It didn’t take lengthy for the Each day Telegraph to affix the dots, with nameless British Museum staffers briefing that Fischer had been compelled to resign by the trustees. In the meantime, the alleged thief had been dismissed within the early summer time and was, in accordance with his son, struggling. (He was promoting himself as a tutor in English as a overseas language in his hometown of Hastings.)
The inevitable conflation of the thefts and the director’s resignation has plunged the museum into deep disaster, as our lead article experiences. Thefts from museums might not be that uncommon traditionally (and are sometimes swept underneath the carpet, in accordance with museum insiders, for worry of simply such dangerous publicity), however the media has sniffed a wider cover-up. It will be pure for heads to roll on this scenario, however Fischer’s head was already rolling. On the time of writing, there are requires Fischer to go instantly (he is because of step down in 2024) amid information that greater than 1,500 objects could also be lacking. Nonetheless, well-placed insiders really feel that this incident—critical although it’s—might not be the complete story behind his resignation. A distinction in imaginative and prescient between Osborne and Fischer, notably on the return of the Parthenon Marbles, appears to have additionally performed a job.
Now, apart from the numerous unanswered questions prompted by what’s an ongoing police investigation, the most important query going through the British Museum’s trustees is: who will take the masterplan ahead? In essence, what kind of mental management will the world’s premier museum plump for? Osborne’s quotes on the theft within the 16 August press launch conclude somewhat ambiguously: “This incident solely reinforces the case for the reimagination of the museum we’ve embarked upon.”
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