(London) The British Museum took legal action Tuesday against a former curator accused of stealing hundreds of objects from its collections and putting them up for sale online.
The museum is suing Peter Higgs, who was fired in July 2023 after more than 1,800 objects were discovered missing. The museum’s lawyers say Mr. Higgs “abused his position of trust” to steal ancient gems, gold jewelry and other pieces from the reserves over the course of a decade.
British High Court judge Heather Williams ordered Mr Higgs to inventory or return all items in his possession within four weeks. She also requested disclosure of her eBay and PayPal records.
The museum says it has recovered 356 of the missing items so far and hopes to find more.
“The items that were stolen from the museum are culturally and historically significant,” the museum’s attorney, Daniel Burgess, said in his written legal arguments.
Mr Burgess claimed the accused attempted to “cover his tracks” by using false names, creating false documents, manipulating museum archives and selling objects for less than their value.
Mr. Higgs, who worked in the museum’s Greece and Rome department for more than two decades, denies the allegations and intends to challenge the museum’s legal claims.
He did not attend Tuesday’s hearing due to health problems, his lawyers said.
A separate police investigation into the matter is ongoing and Mr. Higgs has not been charged with a crime.
Museum director Hartwig Fischer resigned after the objects’ loss was revealed in August, apologizing for not taking seriously enough an art historian’s warning that objects in his collection were sold on eBay.
Board chairman George Osborne acknowledged that the reputation of the 265-year-old institution had been damaged by the episode.
The 18th century museume century, located in the Bloomsbury district of central London, is one of the UK’s biggest tourist attractions, visited by six million people a year. They come to see a collection ranging from Egyptian mummies and ancient Greek statues to Viking treasures, including scrolls containing Chinese poetry from the 12th century.e century and masks created by indigenous peoples of Canada.