As the missing artifacts scandal in the British Museum keeps getting bigger, director Hartwig Fischer announced to step down from his position.
On August 16th, the British Museum released a public statement, admitting that a significant number of artifacts from its collection are missing or damaged. They also announced that the responsible employee had been fired as they ran their own internal investigation into the matter. Since then, other newspapers have revealed news that has only made the matter worse.
First, it was revealed that the accused employee is veteran curator Peter Higgs. Then, it was reported that the number of stolen items might be close to 2000. The most damaging news came when it was revealed that an art advisor had already warned the museum of the ongoing theft back in 2021. Ittai Gradel, a Dutch art dealer, said that his warnings were ignored by the museum. Hartwig Fischer himself was aware of Gradel’s mail but didn’t take any action. This directly implicated Fischer in negligence over theft in his museum.
On Friday, announcing his resignation, Fischer wrote: “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. I also misjudged the remarks I made earlier this week about Dr Gradel. I wish to express my sincere regret and withdraw those remarks.” It must be noted that earlier this week, Hartwig Fischer said that he had taken Gradel’s warning seriously and investigated into the issue, but found no evidence of any wrongdoing.
Hartwig Fischer was scheduled to step down from his position next year, but the scandal hastened it. Jonathan Williams, deputy director of the museum, will be filling his position in the interim.
