LONDON (AP) — The British Museum went to court docket Tuesday towards a former curator purported to have stolen masses of artifacts from its collections and presented them on the market on-line.The museum is suing Peter Higgs, who used to be fired in July 2023 after greater than 1,800 pieces have been found out to be lacking. Attorneys for the museum say Higgs “abused his place of consider” to thieve historic gem stones, gold jewellery and different items from storerooms over the process a decade. Top Court docket pass judgement on Heather Williams ordered Higgs to listing or go back any pieces in his ownership inside 4 weeks. She additionally ordered the disclosure of his eBay and PayPal information.The museum says it has recovered 356 of the lacking pieces to this point, and hopes to get extra again.“The pieces which were stolen from the museum are of cultural and ancient importance,” museum attorney Daniel Burgess mentioned in written criminal arguments.
Burgess mentioned the defendant attempted to “duvet his tracks” by way of the use of pretend names, growing false paperwork, manipulating the museum’s information and promoting artifacts at not up to their worth.Higgs, who labored within the museum’s Greece and Rome division for greater than twenty years, denies the allegations and intends to dispute the museum’s criminal declare.
He didn’t attend Tuesday’s listening to because of deficient well being, legal professionals mentioned.A separate police investigation into the case is ongoing, and Higgs has no longer been charged with a criminal offense.
Museum director Hartwig Fischer resigned after the lack of the pieces used to be printed in August, apologizing for failing to take severely sufficient a caution from an artwork historian that artifacts from its assortment have been being offered on eBay.Chairman of trustees George Osborne has stated that the popularity of the 265-year-old establishment has been broken by way of the episode.The 18th-century museum in central London’s Bloomsbury district is considered one of Britain’s greatest vacationer sights, visited by way of 6 million other people a yr. They arrive to peer a suite that levels from Egyptian mummies and historic Greek statues to Viking hoards, scrolls bearing Twelfth-century Chinese language poetry and mask created by way of the Indigenous peoples of Canada.
