As own goals go, the revelations about the disappearance of artefacts from the British Museum that led to Friday night’s resignation of its director, Hartwig Fischer, are eye-popping. Most of the missing objects might not be of great value: nearly a thousand came from a bequest made by the family of an 18th-century collector, and had been stored away in a drawer without even being individually catalogued.
But the narrative is devastating. When the drawer was opened, it has been reported, only seven items remained. The museum had been warned in 2021 that objects from its collection had been turning up for sale, but Mr Fischer said that, after an internal investigation, he was confident all had been accounted for. It was only when the board of directors was alerted that further action was taken. By the time the thefts were made public last week, a senior staff member had been sacked and the Metropolitan police called in. Now the director himself has gone, too.
