The British Museum : a reckoning
or how the culprit is always The Empire.
There is an ongoing situation right now in the world of cultural and historical institutions that is threatening to destroy and crumble the whole entire way those institutions have been working so far. Well, I wish that it would. Realistically, it will be a situation that will be on the news for a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months. The guilty parties will make a promise to do better and have better policies going into the future, and then while the hype dies down in the mainstream media, nothing much will actually happen concretely. However, I do think it is something important to discuss, after all, the museums and similar institutions have been facing a reckoning in the past few years, when it comes to decolonizing and making their system up to date with the times. There is a certain tension in the artistic and academic world as there is continuous pressure to change the institution of the museums, but it is incredibly difficult to do so when so much of the foundations themselves of these establishments are constructed on imperialist tenets.
For those who are not in the know yet, a couple of weeks ago, on the 16th of august 2023, an explosive article has come out in the Guardian, detailing news of an inside theft at the British Museum, and as time went on, details started to emerge that created a much worse tableau of the situation at the British Museum than could have been anticipated. and to be fair, probably in other museum institutions, as there is a lack of due processes and transparency that is being discovered that seems to be institutional, and in the inherent way most museums are managed and regulated. There is a lack of care toward the public history and knowledge that they are supposedly the custodians of , and considering the heated debates surrounding the the ever present topic of restitution of items of dubious provenance, or that have been stolen and looted during the colonial regime, and this incident is shining a light on the frankly shady ways the institutions have been dealing with its catalogue, but most importantly with its priceless historical artefacts.Â
Here are the facts as we know it for now, there has been an on-going theft at the British Museum from an inside source that lasted for decades, the culprit is allegedly (oh look at me using this word to protect myself from lawsuits, how fancy of me) Peter Higgs, a curator of the British Museum who has been working at the museum since 1993 as an expert in Ancient Greek art, he took advantage of his knowledge of the Museum’s inner workings and of the cracks in the security to steal up to 2000 historical artefacts that range from the 15th century BCE to the 19th century, allegedly of course. As I write this, he still denies any criminal act and protests his innocence on this case. Apparently, the museum knew about these thefts as early as 2020 or 2021, and yet nothing was done until the past few weeks with the firing of this individual, as well as a criminal investigation starting to take place. Those objects were apparently and allegedly sold on eBay, and some of these items were estimated to be worth up to 50000£, and yet were only sold for the measly sum of 40£. I have to ask, was it even worth all the effort at that point ? Especially considering the monetary worth of these items is evaluated in the millions of pounds, which is extremely problematic considering how easy it was to steal those items.
As it is still an ongoing crisis for the British Museum, good luck to those in the Public Relations department, they’re going to need it and a raise, for the work they’ll have to face as the general public, and the international community take stock of the situation. After all, this situation would be critical in any museum, however, it is that much more critical due to the fact that the British Museum is a public museum, and there is a huge lack of transparency when it comes to the archives and the extensive collection of items and artefacts they have acquired through the years. Every single museums should be clear with regards to what items they own, and more importantly, with regards to the provenance of those items and how these items were acquired by the institution, to make sure that the items they collect and are displaying are not looted items, or that they are not taking part in the trafficking ofÂ
When it comes to archives, it is important to understand that these departments are often under-funded, and the resource and people working there are often stretched things trying to work through the day to day operations to keep the archives going, and not be able to take the steps to address the mismanagement of archives in the years prior. I am assuming that everyone working at the archives of the British Museum is in good faith, and I know just how big of an ask it is to take care of archives that span more than a hundred years, and oftentimes, the work of archiving and cataloguing the artefacts that come into the possession of the Museum hadn’t been done correctly as the tenets of the discipling of archiving were not rigorously put in place back in the 18th and 19th century, unlike the ways they are now very much regulated and where there is a certain standard of good practices that is expected; a standard of practices that obviously was not respected when it comes to the collection of the British Museum.Â
After all, on top of taking care of the collection of historical archives, the work of an archivist involves taking care of the files and documents of an administrative and financial nature, which are vital components of any type of archives, on top of the historical archives. So, for example, they would have to deal with requests from HR for an employee file, as well as external researchers. And so, in these circumstances, it can be difficult for a small department to do its daily work and also try to course-correct the work that had been badly done for years. HOWEVER, it is important to recognize that the British Museum is a cultural institution whose entire premise relies on its collection of historical and artistic objects, and so there needs to be a great focus on the cataloguing and care of its collection, and so the funding and development of its archiving department is absolutely primordial in its continuous existence and good work, and should be prioritized when it comes to budgeting the institution.Â
Now that I have put this into context, you will be able understand how much the fact that the archives and staff workers are constantly undervalued and underfunded plays a huge role in the thefts. I hugely believe in the fact that all workers should be fairly compensated, and not overworked, which, with experience from working in both museums and archives, I can tell you that the lower staff in these environments are often either underpaid or overworked. Or both. However, in an establishment where the preservation of history is as important as it is in a museum, there has to be resources and funds invested in this department to make sure everyone working there can do a good job, and has the time to do a good job. It is important to know that one of the most important good practices in the field is that whenever you receive any kind of new items, you have to immediately catalogue it and enter it in the system, before you can bring it down to the archives. After all, the thief took advantage of the fact that a lot of items had not been properly inventoried and catalogued, and so for all that it’s worth, officially did not exist in the system of the British Museum, and so it makes it very easy to simply . Maybe. Take something, in a way that assures that no one notices that the item is missing, because it is not in the official archives. In a way, it is almost the perfect crime, and obviously it had worked for a very significant length of time, until the thief got arrogant, and started stealing artefacts and objects that were already in the catalogue, and could be cross-referenced and verified, which is indeed what happened when someone started seeing suspicious items being sold on eBay and alerted the museum, in 2021.Â
 It is very difficult to course correct decades of malpractices in archiving and cataloguing, and especially so when there was only one inventory manager in charge of the documentation of the entire collection, which approximates eight million items, but no one knows for sure, and especially considering that only 4.5 million items are documented, which leaves a whole 3.5 million items uncatalogued, which is almost half of the items the museum owns. It is only after the thief got a little bit arrogant and started selling items that were already listed in the museum’s collection that suspicions were arisen, and here we are now, in a situation where a huge breach of security, and a lack of transparency in the collection of the British Museums, and it raises so many questions pertaining to their online catalogue, but most importantly, in regards to the almost purposeful obscuring of their entire collection — after all, why is such a huge part of the collection of a public museum missing from the public database ?Â
These current circumstances now bring a new set of issues having to do with the dubious provenance of a lot of those items in the British Museum, after all this museum was funded in 1759, at the height of the British imperial project, which means that the objective and the foundations that were guiding the collecting for a long part of its history were based on colonial principles, I will even advance that it is far from being an isolated case, after all, most western museums were created on this principle — and this outlook on collecting and preserving is one that is very western centric and based on a strong conviction that they not only are entitled to historical items that do not belong to them, and were often acquired through looting and violence, and the strong belief that they can take care of these objects better than the people these objects belong to.Â
And so now, with these thefts happening at such an extensive scale, where the culprit was not caught for more than decades, but was committing the crimes so easily and unashamedly, there is now little proof that they can take care of these items better than the countries they were stolen from; which was always the main argument left against restitution. They have the confidence that the other countries simply do not have the resources needed to take care of these objects (however, I would say that since these objects were often looted and stolen from countries who were under the yoke of the British Empire, the reason why they do not have the financial resources now is because the British Empire has stolen from them and has made its fortune on the back of the colonized nations it pillaged these items from)Â There is a lack of real acknowledgement of the colonial past and wrongdoings, and while a lot is being said, whether about the desire to decolonize museums, or the topic of restitutions, and I think there are things being accomplished in this realm, and I always want to applaud the work of historians, curators, academics, or even just the general public, and anyone who is putting pressure on the museums and public institutions for them to do the right thing, because otherwise those establishments will not take those steps by themselves. After all, why would the British Empire, of all things, do that. It considers that those items are theirs by right of conquest, even after all those years, the museum continues to be a tool of imperialism and colonialism; with the items and artefacts it hosts in its collection, but also in the way it chooses to display and interpret them. The museum is thus molding and creating the framework through which a lot of history will be understood, and this framework is very much western-centric and favors the white point of view as the neutral perspective on history and art.Â
Additionally, while history is comprised of facts and events, the way these are presented is a constructed history. It is a narrative. The perspective in which history is being told is almost as important as the events themselves. It is said that history is written by the victors, and that is incredibly true, whether we’re talking about general history, art history or whatever else. The one who has the voice is the one in control of the story being told. Because as much as we want to deny it, there’s a certain form of storytelling when it comes to the creation of History that is inherent to the discipline, and of the way it is understood and framed. What are the events that are focused on, which part of history is made important, while the other is devalued. The fact that western museums own such a huge amount of items stolen and looted from colonized countries is something that definitely needs to be confronted, especially now that the British Museum has proven that it is not, in fact, able to take better care of those items. After all, Greece has been requesting for the return of the Parthenon Marbles for so long, and it is disingenuous to pretend that Greece does not have the knowledge and drive to take care of such important parts of its history, and likewise about all the items that have been stolen and looted by the British Empire. It might be true in certain cases, however, there must be an attempt at trying to right the wrong of colonialism, in a goal of reconciliation and of sharing and developing our knowledge and appreciation of history, of the good, and of the terribly bad. After all, the items that were taken during the height of colonialism are tokens of the incredible violence of imperialism, and this is something that needs to be repaired . The British have not just taken small souvenirs, they have taken enormous amounts of historical artefacts, important witnesses of history that have a meaningful cultural and historical relevance for the people it was stolen from, and yet these items are still in the hands of the British Empire. After all, maybe the biggest theft that has graced the walls of the British Museum was not the steady theft that Peter Higgs was carrying out during the past few decades but the looting and dubious, and yet, legal, acquisition of items from their colonies. Â
And yet the fact that there is so much discussion around the topic of decolonizing museums and the restitution of stolen items to their countries of origin does give me hope, because I do see the effort that is being made by the people who work in these institutions as well as adjacent to the museum world, and how people are truly trying to change the laws and the system that is actively hindering a fairer practice in museums and cultural institutions. I do hope that this ongoing crisis at the British Museum opens a frank discussion about the importance of transparency in our cultural institution, the priority of funding and allocating enough resources toward cataloguing and indexing as well as the important process of deconstructing and reconstructing what is ultimately an extremely flawed institution based on dated principles and foundations, to create something new that willÂ