The British Museum is hopeful about recovering stolen objects that have been sold to dealers throughout the world ahead of a new exhibit which showcases the tracked down items.
In August, one of the world’s most famous museums revealed that items were missing, stolen or damaged – later disclosed as around 2,000 artefacts – from the London institution’s collection, and a member of staff had been sacked.
Visitors can go to a new exhibition, called Rediscovering Gems, from Thursday, which shows 10 of the previously stolen items along with other classical Greek and Roman artefacts of the same type that were used for sealing documents and decoration.
Tom Harrison, keeper of the British Museum’s department of Greece and Rome, told the PA news agency that getting back 357 stolen artefacts, so far, from six collectors has been “very, very painstaking” work.
However, he said the help from dealers – who bought the items from various places – has been “supportive” in providing information to locate them.
He described the artefacts as being “very widely scattered” all over the world, so the recovery has been “very slow business” and “much more complicated than we possibly could have imagined”.
Mr Harrison estimated that among the affected artefacts, around 500 items have been “irreparably” and minimally damaged.
He also said: “(If) we could manage to get every object back, there still will be a net loss because we’ve got objects that had gold mounts that don’t have gold mounts, objects that were fractured by taking the gold mount off them and that’s just a horrible factor … Some of them can be conserved or improved but there are limits to what we can achieve in that way.”
When asked how employees at the body are feeling five months on from the thefts being revealed, he said there is “optimism” but he did not want to minimise the impact, which has seen British Museum director Hartwig Fischer resign.
Mr Harrison said: “I don’t want to talk in relation to this (exhibit), for example, in terms of silver linings, I think it’s kind of inappropriate … the damage is just terrible, the impact in terms of reputation obviously isn’t something that’s quick to repair.
“But actually, there are positive things that have come out of it, very straightforwardly. This material is getting a look in, curatorial expertise in relation to these things is kind of hugely appreciated.
“There are lots of things that are going well. At least objects will be better documented. My collection generally will be better documented than it’s ever been, I think, as a result of this in the end, because we’re looking into every single object and the archival material in relation to it and we’re learning things from that constantly.”
He also described recovery as “a big project” which needs some staff – across the museum – trying to find and verify the items and working with colleagues to transport them and get export licences to bring them back to the UK.
Claudia Wagner, a senior research associate in gems at the British Museum also told PA how different engraved gems have been part of an “enormous scandal” once before.
Gems had been popular, reaching their height in the 18th century, until Polish prince Stanislaw Poniatowski’s collection was sold at Christie’s in London in the 19th century and were discovered to be forgeries.
She said that to distinguish the false and real gems is getting better with improved ways of dating, but the study requires a lot of expertise as it is “complicated”.
When asked if the summer disclosure of thefts have revived interest, she said: “Very much so, so now there’s definitely quite a revival in the art and possibly it had started slightly earlier, because now with digital photography, we really can capture the beauty and the details of it.”
The gem expert, who is also a lecturer and researcher at the University of Oxford, also spoke about how engraving gems took more than half a year to make during in the ancient past. She said they could have been worn by “very, very rich Romans” and have been found at the ancient Roman sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
She also said the gems, such as one of the formerly stolen ones, featuring the head of Augustus, who is credited as the first Roman emperor, were tools of “propaganda”.
Ms Wagner compared the engraved gems to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat, denoting support for ex-US president Donald Trump, or declaring through some token that you like former prime minister Boris Johnson.
“We know this is Augustus, as the same head appears on his coinage and very often they were symbols of power,” she added.
Rediscovering Gems will run until June 15 in room three at the British Museum.