British Museum is set to publish the findings of an independent review into how its artefacts were stolen and sold online

This week the British Museum will publish the results of an independent study into how historical artefacts were stolen and sold online.

About 1,500 items, including jewelry, sculpture fragments and pottery, disappeared over a nearly 30-year period, and another 350 artifacts had parts removed, such as gold gemstone settings.

It is understood that museum trustees, including chairman George Osborne, received a copy of the review last week and discussed it at a board meeting.

A source told The Sunday Times that the recommendations will be published this week and are “expected to include tighter security and improved accounting.”

The independent review is being led by Lucy D’Orsi, chief constable of the British Transport Police, Sir Nigel Boardman, a former board member of the British Museum, and Ian Caret, a lawyer.

A number of changes have already been made by the British Museum’s interim director Sir Mark Jones, who has been in charge of the restoration work since this week.

Tighter procedures include banning anyone from entering the vaults alone, and intensifying efforts to digitize museum records.

Ms D’Orsi and Mr Boardman also led a team in the search for the missing treasure, some of which is believed to have been sold for the “insultingly low” sum of just £30.

Although the catch is estimated to be worth millions of pounds, the culprit or culprits may have made as little as £100,000 from the sales, insiders believe.

The thefts, first discovered when an art historian spotted items being sold online in late 2020, went undetected for so long partly because cataloging was incomplete, meaning insiders did not notice when items went missing, sources told The Sunday Times.

Instead, curators had to rely on old paper records, such as catalogs and details of wills, which had to be cross-referenced with the contents of the vaults.

The team recovering the missing items was successful, with 351 items recovered and another 300 located.

Although it is believed the partially removed parts of the artefacts will never be recovered as they were likely melted down, a source close to the British Museum said: ‘It is a credit to the team that we have made such progress.’

When the disappearance of the exhibits became known, the British Museum plunged into the worst crisis in its 270-year history.

Its director, Hartwig Fischer, resigned, acknowledging shortcomings and saying the museum had “not responded as comprehensively as it should have.”

Meanwhile, a senior case manager was fired, although his family insisted he had done nothing wrong.

Police are investigating and a man was questioned under caution in August, although no arrests have been made.

In October, Mr Osborne told MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee: “Essentially we were victims of an inside job carried out by someone… in whom the museum trusted.”

“There were quite a lot of steps taken to cover up (the theft) … a lot of records were changed and things like that.”

The museum was first alerted to possible thefts when Ittai Gradel, a Danish antiques dealer, spotted the gemstone being sold on eBay.

Dr Gradel recognized the engraved glass Roman cameo, minus the gold frame fragment, as belonging to part of the British Museum collection.

He alerted the museum in February 2021 but said he was initially “fooled.”

Dr. Gradel eventually took his concerns directly to Osborne, who ordered an investigation late last year.

As part of its recovery efforts, the museum is seeking a court order to access confidential records of online transactions on eBay and PayPal.

The day-to-day work of searching for artifacts is handled by the Metropolitan Police’s Art and Antiquities Department and Tom Harrison, Museum Curator of the Greece and Rome Department.

Warnings were sent to antique dealers and auction houses around the world.

In addition to the thefts, another 140 items were damaged by tool marks but were not removed from the central London museum.

Julian Radcliffe, founder of the Art Loss Register, a global database of 750,000 pieces of lost, stolen and looted art that helps with art recovery, said these items, now believed to be scattered around the world, are being tracked at a “fantastical speed” ” bid’.

He said: “It’s important to act quickly: try to get something before people get rid of something they honestly think is only worth £30 and treat it accordingly.”

The British Museum said the items went missing between 1993 and 2022.

It said the review will aim to “identify failures in controls, processes or policies”, whether the museum could have responded better to Dr Gradel’s concerns, and to “help improve responses to similar allegations or concerns about loss and/or damage to objects.” in future’.