British Museum Partly Shutters After Security Breach by Ex-Employee

The British Museum was partially closed over the weekend after an ex-employee allegedly shut down its security and IT systems.

According to a public statement from a museum spokesperson, the trespasser was an IT contractor fired earlier this month. He returned on Thursday to breach the museum’s systems, the institution said, and was arrested by Metropolitan police that same day. He has since been released on bail “pending further enquiries,” per authorities.

The security breached caused the museum to temporarily close three special of its exhibitions, including a show of Picasso prints. As a result, the museum was forced to issue refunds to ticket holders.

Related Articles

Parthenon sculptures of Ancient Greece, fragments which are collectively known as the Parthenon Marbles aka Elgin Marbles at the British Museum on 4th December 2023 in London, United Kingdom. The Elgin Marbles are considered stolen goods by Greece, and has regularly demanded their return, while the Acropolis Museum, which houses the remaining sculptures, keeps an empty space for them within its current display. The British museum counters this, claiming that the sculptures were legally acquired by Lord Elgin following an agreement with Ottoman leaders. The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. It has a permanent collection of eight million works and is among the largest and most comprehensive collection, which documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

UK Government Won’t Prevent Parthenon Marbles Loan, but British Museum Head Says Agreement Not Imminent

UK PM Tells Greece That Return of Elgin Marbles is British Museum’s Decision, Koyo Kouoh to Curate 2026 Venice Biennale, and More: Morning Links for December 4, 2024

The British Museum was the most popular tourist attraction in the United Kingdom in 2023, with 5.8 million visitors, nearly a 50 percent increase from the prior year. Its collection includes some of the world’s most prized antiquities, including the Rosetta Stone and the contested Parthenon Marbles. However, the Central London institution faced a security scandal in 2023 after reports emerged that a former senior curator had stolen some 2,000 objects from its collection over 30 years.

In addition to the early resignation of museum director Hartwig Fischer, the revelation triggered a reckoning for the institution over its operations and facilities, given that management was alerted to the theft in 2021. Following an independent review of the incident, the museum concluded that it had broken a UK law that requires museums and libraries “to meet basic standards of preservation, access, and professional care.” The law also states that collections should be “in the care of suitably qualified staff.”

The review also gave the museum given 36 recommendations for the museum’s security, governance, and record-keeping operations. Museum leadership has also announced plans for a comprehensive documentation of the museum’s collection in five years, at a cost of $12.1 million. Meanwhile, the museum has self-reported the retrieval of some 600 objects reported missing or stolen from its collection.

Many have since raised questions about the British Museum’s security system. Nigerian officials, for example, renewed their calls for the repatriation of Benin Bronzes, a group of artifacts looted from the West African kingdom of Benin by British forces in 1897, claiming that the museum would not be best fit for caring for them.