Someone looted British Museum, the home of looted artefacts from around the world

In what seems like a recurring problem at the British Museum, one of their employees has allegedly been dismissed following reports of 'stolen', 'missing', or 'damaged' artefacts within the museum's collection.

What

The British Museum dismissed an employee suspected of stealing jewels from a storeroom and initiated a security practice review, according to an announcement by the museum on Wednesday.

• An autonomous security review was initiated following the discovery of missing, stolen, or impaired items.
• These included gold jewellery, semi-precious stones, and glass artefacts dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD.

The dismissed staff member is currently facing legal consequences, and the situation is concurrently under examination by the economic crime command of the Metropolitan Police. 

Due to the ongoing police inquiry, the museum refrained from disclosing the worth of the absent articles or providing additional specifics concerning them.

Museum authorities on the issue

The British Museum Director, Hartwig Fischer, stated the institution's commitment to "recover the objects". Following the event, the British Museum initiated a self-conducted assessment of its security measures.

The museum has initiated an autonomous assessment, overseen by Sir Nigel Boardman, a past trustee, and Lucy D’Orsi, the head constable of the British Transport Police. Their task involves probing into and suggesting improvements for forthcoming security setups.

Not a first

This is hardly the first time that the British Museum has recorded an event where some of its valuable artefacts were stolen.

• Back in the 1970s, several valuable coins and medals of historic values were stolen from the museum. 
• In 2002, a Greek statue dating back 2,500 years and standing at a mere 12cm was documented as stolen.
• Two years later, a collection of Chinese jewellery vanished from the museum's holdings.

• Jumping ahead to 2017, a valuable Cartier Diamond Ring worth GBP 750,000 was reported absent from the exhibited treasures. Interestingly, the ring had actually been stolen in 2011, although this fact only came to light in 2017.

Netizens call it ironic

Upon the news of the theft coming to light, netizens were quick to term this incident as "ironic" and similar posts have been flooding on social media platforms, mostly on X. 

The fact that most of the artefacts on display at the British Museum are of foreign origin, mostly from the erstwhile Empire and not from England, has definitely been one of the reasons that people on social media have focused on, which is why most around the are calling this incident of the theft, highly ironic.