A Roman gems skilled has claimed the British Museum was warned about thefts a number of years in the past, however did not correctly examine.
Professor Martin Henig, a specialist in engraved gems, stated he and a colleague turned detective after recognizing a part of an historical signet ring, considered within the museum’s assortment, on sale with a non-public seller.
The museum was alerted and retrieved the ring, thought to this point from the time of the primary Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, however the teachers found extra objects on the market, some on the net public sale website eBay.
Prof Henig, from Oxford University, stated: “My colleague tried to report this to the museum but it seemed it didn’t get through to the right people. He got very upset and said it really needed to be stopped, but I don’t know what serious investigation was going on.
“There was clearly a severe breach of small objects showing and he relatively suspected others had been as a result of he stored an eye fixed on issues like eBay.”
Prof Henig stated the ring was most likely value round £1,000 and its discovery ought to have triggered a serious investigation on the museum.
He stated: “Bells should have been running right up to the top, but it may well have been taken as being more minor because I suppose occasionally people wander off with an odd thing from museums. It’s often a member of the public, somebody like that, who’s drunk.”
Neither the museum, nor Scotland Yard which is investigating the theft, has stated what number of objects are lacking or their worth, however some – gold jewelry, semi-precious gems and glassware – date again to round three and a half thousand years in the past.
Read extra UK information:
Nurse Lucy Letby discovered responsible of murdering seven infants
Presenter says she’ll cease supporting Man Utd if Greenwood stays
“The number of items must be quite large because it seems to have been going on for a long time,” stated Prof Henig.
“I was told there was a junior curator who was in tears because what seems to have happened is that some of the things in order to make that more saleable and less recognised, say a precious object, a gem or something like that in a gold setting, if you take it out of the gold setting, then you can melt down with gold. It has just a scrap value. I think there was a lot of damage done.”
In the wake of the thefts, the museum’s curator of Roman cultures Peter Higgs was fired earlier this 12 months. He had labored for the museum for 30 years.
He has not spoken about his dismissal, however his son Gregory advised The Times newspaper his father had not stolen something and had been badly handled.
Scotland Yard stated it’s investigating the thefts however has made no arrests.
Prof Henig stated: “I find it so extraordinary that a scholar whose scholarship is unimpeachable, could be involved. I mean, it’s a vacation working in a museum.”
He believed the museum had tried to maintain the matter quiet to keep away from harm to its fame as one of many world’s most prestigious galleries with round eight million objects of human artwork and tradition.
“It seemed to me to be so similar to what has happened in the Church where a bishop covers things up because he doesn’t want to have a scandal,” he stated.
Source: information.sky.com”