Close observers of the antiquities market tend to be a cynical bunch, having witnessed any number of scams, dubious practices and illicit trading. Yet there was a collective expression of shock among them last week when news emerged of the unexplained absence of a reported about 2,000 items from the British Museum’s priceless collection of ancient and historical artefacts, leading to the resignation of director Hartwig Fischer.
“The volume of missing objects is huge,” says Christos Tsirogiannis, a Unesco-related expert on illicit antiquities at the Ionian University in Corfu. “No experts were expecting this to happen in one of the world’s biggest museums.”
