The specific recruitment of a “treasure hunter” reflects the singular scale of the theft. In the summer of 2023, the British Museum revealed the disappearance of nearly 2,000 pieces from its Greco-Roman reserves. Some jewelry dates from the late Bronze Age, around 1500 to 1100 BCE. Curator Peter Higgs is accused of stealing and selling collectible gold jewelry and gems online, well below their true value. For example, a Roman onyx jewel, estimated at between 25,000 and 50,000 pounds sterling (between 28,800 euros and 57,600 euros), was put up for sale on eBay for barely 40 pounds sterling (46 euros).
The British Museum has acknowledged that it does not have comprehensive inventories for all its collections. The absence of such a census prevents the museum from identifying with certainty all of the stolen objects. So far, 654 objects have been found but around a thousand artifacts are still missing. The museum fears in particular that many gold objects have been melted or disassembled.
To strengthen the search for missing antiquities, the British Museum therefore launched the recruitment of a specialist responsible for this mission in early 2026. The profile sought is described as a methodical academic, “half-investigator, half-manager” who will have to devote full time to the search for missing artifacts.
In practice, the future collaborator will have to browse online archives, catalogs and art market announcements. The British Museum also discusses the future use of artificial intelligence tools to compare images and catalogs. The “treasure hunter” will also have to ensure the administrative monitoring of restitutions (ownership certificates and requests for export licenses among others).
This recruitment aims to relieve the already overloaded internal team. A team of five people was until then more or less responsible for searching for the stolen objects, in addition to their usual tasks at the museum. Furthermore, according to Tom Harrisson, curator of Greco-Roman collections since 2023, the British Museum is continuing the inventory of its Greek and Roman collections: “We are reviewing the archives to verify that if, in 1860, we had three glass tubes or three lion’s paw-shaped table legs or any other similar object, we still have three”.
The position of “treasure hunter” is in addition to measures already taken: an independent audit and a plan to digitize its eight million objects. The museum recorded the stolen and identified objects in the Art Loss Register database (international register of stolen goods) and constituted a panel of international experts in gemmology and antique jewelry to help the future specialist.
This measure also aims to erase the disastrous image of the loopholes into which the thief was able to slip and which have been widely criticized against the British. The affair cost director Hartwig Fischer their jobs, who admitted that the museum had not responded well enough to previous warnings about missing objects, and deputy director Jonathan Williams.
