The British Museum is stepping up the search for hundreds of lost antiquities by hiring a dedicated treasure hunter. The chosen candidate will be responsible for recovering gold jewelry and semi-precious stones that were allegedly stolen by the museum’s ex-curator for Greece and Rome.
Since news of the shock theft of some 1,500 objects was made public in 2023, more than a third of the missing trove has been recovered. The race is now on to save the remaining pieces—long since scattered across the globe—from being destroyed, melted down, or otherwise lost forever.
“We want to make progress fast in terms of getting things back,” the museum’s keeper of Greece and Rome, Tom Harrison, told the London Times over the weekend. “We want to get as much staffing as we can to try and push ahead.”
He added that the principal task of the sleuth would be to keep in contact with an international network of dealers, auction houses, and collectors who may have crucial intel about the treasures’ whereabouts.
The British Museum did not respond to a request for further comment.
Individual pieces have spread far and wide. The alleged perpetrator of the theft, ex-curator Peter Higgs, reportedly flogged some items online. One piece of Roman jewelry worth $60,000 was found listed on eBay for a mere $48. That gold objects are particularly vulnerable to being melted down remains “a depressing possibility,” said Harrison.
a piece of jewellery with sard gem engraved with images laid into what appears to be a silver ring, photographed against a black background
A sard gem engraved with depictions of Sarapis and Isis. Photo courtesy of the British Museum.
So far, the recovery of 654 objects has been mostly down to a small team of museum staffers who are juggling the mission with other responsibilities. They have sifted through catalogs and archives, as well as contacting specialists dealers who “are overwhelmingly being really helpful,” Harrison said. In some cases, the team is also following up on tips. In the early days, these efforts could result in big rewards.
“There have been times when we got large numbers of gems” in one go, said Harrison, citing a 268-piece hoard brought back over from the U.S. “We hope there will be another smaller than that, but still sizeable, in the future.”
“It’s kind of exhilarating when you make a match,” Harrison added. He cautioned, however, that “more and more, it’s one object, two objects,” resulting in “fewer moments of catharsis.”
The new treasure hunter will be able to dedicate all their time and attention to generating new leads and keeping on top of the resulting administrative work. Incomplete paperwork can complicate the search for items that were stolen over a decade ago and, even in successful cases, the process of securing an export license for a recovered object can be lengthy.
The human hunter can also expect some technological assistance. “We’ve got cleverer at doing open-source investigation effectively, searching for images of objects, which is finding quite a lot,” Harrison said. Matches between online images and those in the museum catalog may eventually be made using new A.I. tools.
You can trace what you don’t know is missing, and the British Museum is continuing to audit its Greece and Rome collections. “We’re going through the archive and ensuring that if in 1860 we had three glass tubes or lion’s foot table legs or whatever, we’ve still got three,” explained Harrison.
The majority of the stolen items came from the Hellenistic and Roman world, but some pieces of jewelry date back to the Late Bronze Age, or about 1500–1100 B.C.E. The British Museum is taking legal action against Higgs, who denies all the allegations against him.
Credit: news.artnet
Since news of the shock theft of some 1,500 objects was made public in 2023, more than a third of the missing trove has been recovered. The race is now on to save the remaining pieces—long since scattered across the globe—from being destroyed, melted down, or otherwise lost forever.
“We want to make progress fast in terms of getting things back,” the museum’s keeper of Greece and Rome, Tom Harrison, told the London Times over the weekend. “We want to get as much staffing as we can to try and push ahead.”
He added that the principal task of the sleuth would be to keep in contact with an international network of dealers, auction houses, and collectors who may have crucial intel about the treasures’ whereabouts.
The British Museum did not respond to a request for further comment.
Individual pieces have spread far and wide. The alleged perpetrator of the theft, ex-curator Peter Higgs, reportedly flogged some items online. One piece of Roman jewelry worth $60,000 was found listed on eBay for a mere $48. That gold objects are particularly vulnerable to being melted down remains “a depressing possibility,” said Harrison.
a piece of jewellery with sard gem engraved with images laid into what appears to be a silver ring, photographed against a black background
A sard gem engraved with depictions of Sarapis and Isis. Photo courtesy of the British Museum.
So far, the recovery of 654 objects has been mostly down to a small team of museum staffers who are juggling the mission with other responsibilities. They have sifted through catalogs and archives, as well as contacting specialists dealers who “are overwhelmingly being really helpful,” Harrison said. In some cases, the team is also following up on tips. In the early days, these efforts could result in big rewards.
“There have been times when we got large numbers of gems” in one go, said Harrison, citing a 268-piece hoard brought back over from the U.S. “We hope there will be another smaller than that, but still sizeable, in the future.”
“It’s kind of exhilarating when you make a match,” Harrison added. He cautioned, however, that “more and more, it’s one object, two objects,” resulting in “fewer moments of catharsis.”
The new treasure hunter will be able to dedicate all their time and attention to generating new leads and keeping on top of the resulting administrative work. Incomplete paperwork can complicate the search for items that were stolen over a decade ago and, even in successful cases, the process of securing an export license for a recovered object can be lengthy.
The human hunter can also expect some technological assistance. “We’ve got cleverer at doing open-source investigation effectively, searching for images of objects, which is finding quite a lot,” Harrison said. Matches between online images and those in the museum catalog may eventually be made using new A.I. tools.
You can trace what you don’t know is missing, and the British Museum is continuing to audit its Greece and Rome collections. “We’re going through the archive and ensuring that if in 1860 we had three glass tubes or lion’s foot table legs or whatever, we’ve still got three,” explained Harrison.
The majority of the stolen items came from the Hellenistic and Roman world, but some pieces of jewelry date back to the Late Bronze Age, or about 1500–1100 B.C.E. The British Museum is taking legal action against Higgs, who denies all the allegations against him.
Credit: news.artnet
