British Museum theft

British Museum theft - 11th September 2023

Two thousand artefacts disappeared from the British Museum. People stole and sold these objects.

The museum has 8 million artefacts. But it only shows 80 thousand. The others are in a store room. Only staff or researchers can visit the store room.

No one knows who stole the artefacts. Dan Hicks is an archaeologist. He said that the museum didn't list all their artefacts. The store rooms don't have cameras. It's easy to steal the artefacts. And it's hard to find them.

Managers at the museum didn't know about the thefts. They happened over many years. In 2021, Ittai Gradel found some of the artefacts. He knew they were from the museum. He sent a photo to the museum of 70 of the artefacts. He found them on eBay.

Now, many countries are asking for their artefacts back. They don't want to lose their cultural objects.