British Museum director resigns over artifact theft row

British Museum officials launched an investigation into the thefts after gold jewellery, semi-precious stones were sold on eBay. Pic/Getty Images

The director of the British Museum, one of London's premier tourist attractions with thousands of precious artefacts on display including from India, has resigned from his post even as it emerged on Saturday that some of the 2,000 stolen artefacts have been recovered.

Hartwig Fischer issued his resignation announcement on Friday to say that it is now evident that the museum did not respond "comprehensively" to warnings around the feared thefts and that the responsibility ultimately rests with him. On Saturday, chair of the museum's board of trustees George Osborne told a news channel that "we have already started to recover some of the stolen items".

"We believe we have been the victim of thefts over a long period of time and frankly more could have been done to prevent them," said Osborne. Meanwhile, Fischer's resignation came over a week after a member of staff from the museum was sacked pending legal action after several treasures from a storeroom at the museum were found to have been stolen.

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"Over the last few days I have been reviewing in detail the events around the thefts from the British Museum and the investigation into them," said Fischer."It is evident that the British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have in response to the warnings in 2021, and to the problem that has now fully emerged. The responsibility for that failure must ultimately rest with the director," said the outgoing director, a German art historian.

2,000
No of artifacts recovered from the eBay sale until now

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