A decide has ordered a former curator who the British Museum says stole tons of of artifacts to return any gems or jewellery from the establishment which might be in his possession.
The museum claims that the previous curator, Peter Higgs, who as soon as ran the museum’s Greek and Roman antiquities division, stole or broken over 1,800 artifacts from its collections and bought tons of of these gadgets on eBay, based on courtroom paperwork.
Officers additionally need Mr. Higgs to elucidate the whereabouts of different artifacts that they says the previous curator bought on-line. The courtroom paperwork state that Mr. Higgs disputes the accusations towards him.
At a Excessive Court docket listening to in London, the presiding decide, Heather Williams, ordered Mr. Higgs to return any gadgets inside 4 weeks. Decide Williams additionally ordered PayPal, the web funds firm, to reveal knowledge regarding Mr. Higgs’s eBay accounts, together with his transaction historical past.
The lacking museum gadgets embody engraved gems and jewellery, a few of that are hundreds of years previous.
On Tuesday, Mr. Higgs and his household didn’t reply to emails and social media messages from The Instances. In courtroom papers, the museum’s attorneys stated the curator was “affected by extreme psychological pressure” and was “unable to reply successfully to the proceedings.”
For the reason that museum introduced the thefts in August, it has solely recovered round 350 of the lacking artifacts.
The London police are investigating, however a spokeswoman for the drive stated in an e mail on Wednesday that it had not charged anybody in reference to the lacking artifacts.
The museum stated in courtroom paperwork that it had “compelling proof” that between 2009 and 2018, Mr. Higgs “abused his place of belief throughout the museum” to take artifacts, together with gadgets that the museum hadn’t totally registered in its catalog. Mr. Higgs then bought a lot of them on eBay to at the very least 45 completely different consumers, the museum says. These consumers allegedly embody folks from the US and Denmark.
Within the submitting, the museum additionally accuses the previous curator of trying to cowl up the thefts by altering the museum’s digital catalog, together with altering descriptions of lacking gadgets.
Though British newspapers had lengthy reported that Mr. Higgs was the curator on the heart of the scandal, Tuesday’s listening to was the primary time that the museum had named him.
When the museum fired Mr. Higgs for gross misconduct in July, he had been working there for over 30 years. In 2021, the museum promoted Mr. Higgs to performing keeper of its Greek and Roman division — an essential place overseeing a number of the museum’s most treasured artifacts, together with the disputed Parthenon Marbles.
Mr. Higgs curated a number of blockbuster British Museum exhibits, together with a 2016 exhibition on Sicilian historical past. One other of his exhibitions, “Historic Greeks: Athletes Warriors and Heroes,” toured to Australia and China.
The museum’s authorized workforce advised the courtroom that the establishment was making an attempt to compel Mr. Higgs to provide particulars concerning the gadgets it says he stole as a result of there was a danger they might quickly “change into irrecoverable.”
“As long as the gadgets are at giant, restoration of the stolen gadgets turns into harder as gadgets are bought and resold, doubtlessly throughout borders,” the museum’s attorneys advised the courtroom. “The earlier the museum is ready to contact different consumers,” it provides, “the extra possible it’s that additional property can be recovered.”
