{"id":11246,"date":"2024-03-27T15:33:15","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T15:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/27\/british-museum-sues-former-curator-for-return-of-stolen-items\/"},"modified":"2024-03-27T15:33:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T15:33:15","slug":"british-museum-sues-former-curator-for-return-of-stolen-items","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/27\/british-museum-sues-former-curator-for-return-of-stolen-items\/","title":{"rendered":"British Museum Sues Former Curator for Return of Stolen Items"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/27\/arts\/27british-museum-new\/27british-museum-new-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"British Museum Sues Former Curator for Return of Stolen Items\" title=\"British Museum Sues Former Curator for Return of Stolen Items\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A judge has ordered a former curator who the British Museum says stole hundred of artifacts to return any gems or jewelry from the institution that are in his possession.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The museum claims that the former curator, Peter Higgs, who once ran the museum\u2019s Greek and Roman antiquities department, stole or damaged over 1,800 artifacts from its collections and sold hundreds of those items on eBay, according to court documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Officials also want Mr. Higgs to explain the whereabouts of other artifacts that they says the former curator sold online. The court documents state that Mr. Higgs disputes the accusations against him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At a High Court hearing in London, the presiding judge, Heather Williams, ordered Mr. Higgs to return any items within four weeks. Judge Williams also ordered PayPal, the online payments company, to disclose data relating to Mr. Higgs\u2019s eBay accounts, including his transaction history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The missing museum items include <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/15\/arts\/design\/british-museum-stolen-gems.html\" title=\"\">engraved gems and jewelry, some of which are thousands of years old<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Tuesday, Mr. Higgs and his family did not respond to emails and social media messages from The Times. In court papers, the museum\u2019s lawyers said the curator was \u201csuffering from severe mental strain\u201d and was \u201cunable to respond effectively to the proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since the museum <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/16\/arts\/design\/british-museum-theft.html\" title=\"\">announced the thefts in August<\/a>, it has only recovered around 350 of the missing artifacts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The London police are investigating, but a spokeswoman for the force said in an email on Wednesday that it had not charged anyone in connection with the missing artifacts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The museum said in court documents that it had \u201ccompelling evidence\u201d that between 2009 and 2018, Mr. Higgs \u201cabused his position of trust within the museum\u201d to take artifacts, including items that the museum hadn\u2019t fully registered in its catalog. Mr. Higgs then sold many of them on eBay to at least 45 different buyers, the museum says. Those buyers allegedly include people from the United States and Denmark.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the filing, the museum also accuses the former curator of attempting to cover up the thefts by altering the museum\u2019s digital catalog, including changing descriptions of missing items.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Although British newspapers had long reported that Mr. Higgs was the curator at the center of the scandal, Tuesday\u2019s hearing was the first time that the museum had named him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When the museum fired Mr. Higgs for gross misconduct in July, he had been working there for over 30 years. In 2021, the museum promoted Mr. Higgs to acting keeper of its Greek and Roman department \u2014 an important position overseeing some of the museum\u2019s most treasured artifacts, including the disputed Parthenon Marbles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Higgs curated several blockbuster British Museum shows, including a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2016\/apr\/03\/ancient-sicily-british-museum-greek-statues-epic-blockbusters\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">2016 exhibition on Sicilian history<\/a>. Another of his exhibitions, \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britishmuseum.org\/our-work\/international\/international-touring-exhibitions\/ancient-greeks-athletes-warriors-and-heroes\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Ancient Greeks: Athletes Warriors and Heroes<\/a>,\u201d toured to Australia and China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The museum\u2019s legal team told the court that the institution was trying to compel Mr. Higgs to give details about the items it says he stole because there was a risk they could soon \u201cbecome irrecoverable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSo long as the items are at large, recovery of the stolen items becomes more difficult as items are sold and resold, potentially across borders,\u201d the museum\u2019s lawyers told the court. \u201cThe sooner the museum is able to contact other buyers,\u201d it adds, \u201cthe more likely it is that further property will be recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A judge has ordered a former curator who the British Museum says stole hundred of artifacts to return any gems or jewelry from the institution that are in his possession. The museum claims that the former curator, Peter Higgs, who once ran the museum\u2019s Greek and Roman antiquities department, stole or damaged over 1,800 artifacts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/27\/arts\/27british-museum-new\/27british-museum-new-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,16459,16460,16458,3950,9727,9561],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11248,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246\/revisions\/11248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}