The British Museum workers member sacked after the disappearance of a lot of artefacts has been named as Peter Higgs.
Mr Higgs, thought to be certainly one of Britain’s prime consultants on Greek and Mediterranean artefacts, was the British Museum’s curator of Mediterranean cultures till earlier this yr.
The 56-year-old had been with the museum for nearly three a long time.
Mr Higgs’ son denied his father had achieved something improper.
“He’s not happy about it at all,” Greg Higgs informed The Times.
“He’s lost his job and his reputation and I don’t think it was fair. It couldn’t have been [him]. I don’t think there is even anything missing as far as I’m aware.”
The British Museum stated objects that had been discovered to be “missing, stolen or damaged” included “gold jewellery and gems of semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th Century BC to the 19th Century AD”.
The majority had been “small pieces kept in a storeroom belonging to one of the museum’s collections”.
They had been primarily used for tutorial and analysis work and none had just lately been on public show.
British Museum officers started investigating after a number of artefacts had been provided on the market on eBay.
The museum stated it will likely be taking authorized motion and the Metropolitan Police’s financial and crime command is investigating.
During his profession, Mr Higgs had written books from his work on the museum, together with co-authoring a guide concerning the historical Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII.
The guide accompanied a serious exhibition concerning the well-known ruler on the British Museum in 2001, which explored how she was depicted throughout her personal period, in works starting from cash to life-size sculptures.
Another guide printed final yr targeted on the fragments of ornamental structure – generally known as Metopes – recovered from the Temple of Apollo at Bassai.
Mr Higgs additionally co-authored a 2016 guide concerning the historical Sicilian tradition, which accompanied an exhibition on the museum on the time.
In 2021, he was additionally concerned in curating a travelling exhibition concerning the heroes, warriors and athletes of Ancient Greece, bringing collectively nearly 180 artefacts, together with a bit of a frieze that wrapped across the tomb of King Mausolus.
The exhibition, from the British Museum, went to museums in Australia and New Zealand.
In the identical yr, Mr Higgs was concerned in a undertaking to return a uncommon 2,000-year-old marble statue, believed to be of the Greek goddess Persephone, to Libya.
The statue, believed to have come from the traditional Libyan metropolis of Cyrene, was seized by customs officers at Heathrow Airport in 2013.
It was probably stolen from a tomb within the cemetery in the course of the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
On its return to Libya, he informed The Guardian: “It is just lovely to be part of a story which has a happy ending.”
According to The Times, Mr Higgs, who lives in Hastings, East Sussex, went to high school in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, earlier than finding out archaeology on the University of Liverpool.
In an interview with The Greek Herald final yr, Mr Higgs stated he used to go to the British Museum commonly as a baby and was “fascinated by the large-scale sculptures”.
Asked why he notably loved finding out Greek tradition, he stated: “There is the visual connection – the large temples, tombs and sculptures that have so inspired sculptors and architects over time.
“There are the good legends and tales of epic heroes, gods and goddesses which we’ve got identified since childhood and the good legacies of the Greek world – splendidly profound tales was performs after which there’s the Olympic Games – an early and lasting try to advertise peace by means of shared pursuits.”
Source: information.sky.com”