A member of staff from the British Museum has been dismissed after artefacts as much as 3,500-years-old were found by the 264-year-old London tourist attraction to be missing, stolen or damaged.
It has ordered an independent review of security footage and a “vigorous programme to recover the missing items”.
The stolen objects include gold jewellery and semi-precious gems dating back as far as 1400 BCE. Most were small items kept in a storeroom for research and none had been on display recently, the museum said.
“Our priority is now threefold,” said George Osborne, the museum’s chair and a former UK chancellor. “First, to recover the stolen items; second, to find out what, if anything, could have been done to stop this; and third, to do whatever it takes, with investment in security and collection records, to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
