Stolen artifacts fuel debate over its future as a safe repository for cultural items
A group of 20 glazed ceramic tiles originally from China's Shanxi province is on display at the British Museum. The artifact was made during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Editor's Note: The scandal at the British Museum risks undermining the institution's founding purpose as a custodian of the world's treasures, sparking a wave of calls for returning looted artifacts to countries of origin. The story reviews the recent astounding case and experts' perspectives on artifact collections in museums.
Since it was established by the British Parliament in 1753 to house the collection of 71,000 artifacts bequeathed to the nation by physician Hans Sloane, London's British Museum has welcomed millions of visitors, including some of the most famous names in history, through its doors to marvel at its wonders.
In 1765, the 9-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote a piece of music dedicated to the museum on Great Russell Street after a visit. Years later, Karl Marx, Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle became regular users of its famous reading room.
It seems that for too long, the British Museum has been run by people who have regarded it as a private collection and think no one will ask any questions. … It seems to have been operating on a toobig- to-fail mentality. This has been proven very wrong.
Emiline Smith, a fellow of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Hong Kong
In 1972, the visit of the relics of Tutankhamen drew a record 1.8 million visitors to the museum. Then in 1980, it hosted a Viking exhibition. Currently, China's Hidden Century exhibition is being held at the museum to great acclaim.
But this summer, it is not who has been coming through the museum's doors that is being talked about, but it is what has been taken out of them, as a scandal over missing items has made hugely damaging international headlines.
When the story first broke in mid-August, the BBC reported that a staff member had been sacked and there was a police investigation over items that were "missing, stolen or damaged", with museum director Hartwig Fischer calling it "a highly unusual incident".
But less than two weeks later, it was Fischer who was on his way out, with his deputy Jonathan Williams stepping back from duties, as the scandal and reputational damage to one of the world's most highly regarded historical institutions grew, with the revelation that there had been unheeded warnings over suspected thefts two years earlier.
About 2,000 treasures are thought to have been stolen, but recovery has begun for some of them, BBC cited British Museum chairman George Osborne as saying on Aug 26.
Alert ignored
The items involved are dated from 15th century BC to 19th century AD, and had been kept primarily for academic and research purposes.
Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today program that not all of the items were "properly cataloged and registered".
The BBC reported that art dealer Ittai Gradel alerted the museum in February 2021 when he saw items that belonged to it for sale online, but he received a reply from Williams in July that year, saying "there was no suggestion of any wrongdoing".
Senior figures dismissed suggestions of theft as "wholly unfounded", and emails sent to Osborne said "all items are accounted for". But the truth was very different.
"It is evident that the British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have in response to the warnings in 2021, and to the problem that has now fully emerged … the responsibility for that failure must ultimately rest with the director," Fischer's resignation letter said.
Though it is called the British Museum, the most frequently searched term on its website is "Egypt". Despite the location, many of its most famous pieces are from much further afield.
For many years, questions have been asked — and not always satisfactorily answered — about how some of them ended up in British hands.
Sloane, whose life's collection started the museum, was a highly respected medic, promoting inoculation against smallpox, and becoming president of both the College of Physicians and the Royal Society. But the museum's own biography of him acknowledges that he worked on slave plantations, and that his wife's family fortune, which helped fund his collection, also had links to slavery.
In addition to the contentious provenance of many of its exhibits, the security lapses exposed by the scandal have demolished the suggestion that the British Museum is a safer repository for priceless items of international cultural significance than their places of origin.
One of the most high-profile examples of this is the long-running dispute with Greece over the marble friezes from the Parthenon in Athens, acquired by Thomas Elgin in the early part of the 1800s and subsequently sold to the museum. The other is the Benin bronzes, brought back by British soldiers from what is now southern Nigeria, in the late 19th century.
Member of Parliament Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, told The Guardian that the recent scandal, and the fact that there is a specific law — the 1963 British Museum Act preventing the return of such objects — highlighted the "insulting ridiculousness" of the situation.
An employee of the British Museum views Benin bronzes in January. (PHOTO / REUTERS)
Unfolding scandal
"One of the most insulting reasons that they've given is that the other countries that these items belong to would either not be able to take care of them or they are likely to be stolen," she said. "But you've got people in this country putting them on eBay."
Unsurprisingly, the Greek government has been watching the unfolding of the scandal closely, saying that it "reinforces the permanent and just demand of our country for the definitive return" of the marbles.
In an interview with newspaper To Vima, Greek Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni said the scandal brought into question the fundamental credibility of the British Museum.
"The loss, theft, deterioration of objects from a museum's collections is an extremely serious and particularly sad event," she said. "In fact, when this happens from within, beyond any moral and criminal responsibility, a major question arises regarding the credibility of the museum organization itself … the Ministry of Culture is following the development of the issue with great attention."
An unnamed Greek government official was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that the government "like others in the cultural community, are shocked by the scale of the theft … these issues have no direct bearing on our campaign for our legal right for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, which continues unabated".
In addition to the current temporary exhibition, which ends in October, there are around 23,000 pieces from China among the British Museum's estimated 8 million items, with some there since its foundation.
Given the importance that has recently been placed on repatriating Chinese cultural artifacts that have ended up overseas, the saga has been followed with interest in Beijing. There has been no formal comment from the authorities yet, but there was a strongly worded editorial piece about the issue in the Global Times on Aug 28.
Emiline Smith, a fellow of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Hong Kong and a lecturer at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, told China Daily that although the initial story had taken her by surprise, given the museum's status as being the epitome of safe guardianship, it was less of a shock when more details emerged.
"It was clear that there was total lack of oversight and action contributing to an epic failure," she explained. "This isn't the first theft from a museum, and it's not the first insider theft either — anyone who's been in museum storage would know that things do go walkabout, and in this case, it was very clear that there is far too much in the collection for anyone to be able to control it effectively.
"It's a problem of documentation, but also a problem of funding in relation to the kind of oversight needed to avoid these things happening. In recent years, the former government's policy of austerity has clearly had a negative impact in terms of the loss of expertise and a weakening of the systems that could have prevented this happening, so it's quite ironic that the former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne, one of the political architects of that policy, is now chairman of the museum, when this has emerged."
Although the British Museum had the misfortune to be caught out, other museums around the world, particularly ones with roots in colonialism, could face many of the same difficult questions.
In recent years, momentum has been building behind a wider global movement to repatriate items, and Smith said the publicity this incident has received had given that campaign renewed energy.
"It seems that for too long, the British Museum has been run by people who have regarded it as a private collection and think no one will ask any questions," she said. "It seems to have been operating on a too-big-to-fail mentality. This has been proven very wrong."
China is one of many countries that will be keeping a close eye on how the story continues to develop, given the amount of items of its own heritage that are in different hands and distant lands. But as Smith pointed out, its approach to repatriation so far has been distinctive.
"China has positioned itself slightly differently from other countries, as it's bought back items — normally countries of origin make a legal claim, involving law enforcement and suing, or go down the ethical route, making a public claim," Smith explained.
"Instead, China … has asked private donors to buy back objects, which are then reinstated through private museums, which has been effective — if Chinese items ever come up at auction, the room is sure to be full of Chinese buyers."
Wider shock waves
Although official voices have not been heard from China on the issue, the Global Times made it clear where the authorities stand over the matter.
"The Global Times statement showed a desire to go down the ethical route and hold countries accountable for the harms they have done through history," she explained.
The wider shock waves caused by the museum's very public crash and burn are likely to embolden efforts from communities of origin around the world to reclaim their heritage, a path of action cleared by the most unlikely of helpers — COVID-19.
"The pandemic meant museums had to put their collections online, to maintain visitor interest, and that made it easier to discover where things are," she explained.
"Now people in even the remotest areas can get hold of a smartphone and follow the story and track things down, so you're getting countries and communities that haven't necessarily spoken up before saying that they want their heritage back. Politically, it's extremely interesting."
As the museum looks to rebuild its credibility, Carl Heron, its director of scientific research, has been appointed as acting deputy director. But the museum's journey back to its former status will be a long one, with difficult decisions to be made along the way.
What was initially described as a "highly unusual incident" has brought voices and spirits from the past into the spotlight of the present, and the final irony is that these items, long buried in dark archives, could end up shaping the future of the museum world.
"For years, momentum has been dictated by European and North American forces, but it's high time someone else took over at the wheel as what they have been doing has been shown to have failed," Smith said.
"The world is ready for the British Museum to be reinvented, so it needs to take stock of what it has, and come up with an authentic and equitable safeguarding plan that is practical, as opposed to the outdated approach of the gentleman curator. If it changes those values, then there's hope it can reinvent and rebuild itself."
