FBI Investigating Sale of Objects Stolen From British Museum


As over half of the some 2,000 objects stolen from the British Museum collections stay lacking, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is investigating numerous gross sales in america which may be linked to the thefts throughout the pond. A brand new report from the BBC signifies that the FBI has been aiding London’s Metropolitan Police within the search and restoration of objects the museum claims are lacking, pointing to on-line gross sales to collectors based mostly in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Washington, DC.

Final summer season, the British Museum introduced that it had fired an worker accused of stealing gems, jewellery, and glass objects relationship from between the fifteenth century BCE to the 1800s from a museum storeroom, main Director Hartwig Fischer to step down from his publish forward of his scheduled departure. As revealed in a latest lawsuit, former Senior Curator Peter Higgs, who labored within the museum’s Greek collections division for 30 years, was accused of pocketing numerous antiquities during the last decade and promoting them to collectors on eBay by obfuscating their data and hiding his private info. Higgs denies the allegations and intends on disputing the claims.

A number of hundred objects have since been discovered, recognized, and returned to the museum whereas over a thousand stay unaccounted for to this present day. The breach has prompted the establishment to completely digitize its assortment of eight million objects and enlist public assist to find the items nonetheless at giant.

The BBC report states that the FBI had a hand within the restoration of 268 extra objects that the museum claims belonged to its collections that had been bought to a collector in Washington, DC, from the eBay account of person sultan1966, which seems to be Higgs’s, in line with proof offered within the museum’s go well with in opposition to him. The FBI confirmed to the BBC that the person facilitated the article gross sales to the collector in Washington, DC.

The British Museum declined to touch upon the matter when contacted by Hyperallergic, and a spokesperson for the FBI didn’t instantly reply to inquiries.

Tonio Birbiglia, the New Orleans-based collector, advised the BBC that the FBI reached out to him with regard to 2 gems he bought from sultan1966 on eBay as nicely — certainly one of which he paid for by way of PayPal to Higgs’s private e-mail tackle. Birbiglia mentioned he was not in possession of the gems and that the FBI didn’t observe up.

It seems that the antiquities taken from the British Museum’s collections have been scattered internationally, as Danish collector Ittai Gradel initially flagged sure objects bought by sultan1966 on eBay as stolen to the museum in 2021 when he observed that the PayPal info was listed below Peter Higgs, whereas the vendor signed off any digital correspondence with “Paul Higgins.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *