Experts say loss of 1,500 items reveals lax cataloguing and boosts case for returning objects to countries of origin

Close observers of the antiquities market tend to be a cynical bunch, having witnessed any number of scams, dubious practices and illicit trading. Yet there was a collective expression of shock among them last week when news emerged of the unexplained absence of a reported around 2,000 items from the British Museum’s priceless collection of ancient and historical artefacts, leading to the resignation of director Hartwig Fischer.

“The volume of missing objects is huge,” says Christos Tsirogiannis, a forensic archaeologist who works with Trafficking Culture, which researches global traffic in looted cultural objects. “No experts were expecting this to happen in one of the world’s biggest museums.”

  • makyo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is sort of ironic since their chief excuse for hoarding all that stolen loot in the first place was that they claimed they’d be protecting it better than the original owners could have

      • Jsocial@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It was never true.

        Who’s to say they wouldn’t be currently missing if not stolen by a museum?

        • tjhart85@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Hey hey hey, he’s got a point! People who have things don’t usually safeguard them like they should!

          With that in mind, I’m sure between the two of us, we can manage his finances way better than him. He should just give his paychecks to us and we’ll pay his bills and keep the money safe.

          Who’s to say it’s not true? Bob_wiley? Nah, that guy sucks at finances and would just spend it on frivolous shit or literally just throw it in the garage, that’s the kind of savage shit those .World users would do. We can just hold onto the money for him, in our accounts. The money will totally be safe there and we can all agree that we’d be the better people to safeguard the cash for Bob_Wiley. Way better than Bob_Wiley himself.