British Museum sack employee after 'items found missing, stolen or damaged'
dailyrecord.co.ukA police probe has been launched after a member of staff was sacked when a number of items from the British Museum collection were allegedly found to be “missing, stolen or damaged”.
Items including gems of semi-precious stones, gold, and jewellery were among the items alleged to have been targeted.The majority are said to be "small pieces" which had been kept in a "store room belonging to one of the museum's collections".
According to the Mirror, most were dated between the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD and had not been on public display recently, with them being kept for academic and research purposes.British Museum director Hartwig Fischer has apologised over the "highly unusual incident", which was only discovered earlier this year.
The London museum, which houses artefacts from around the world, has launched an independent review of security as it said a staff member has been dismissed.It is currently unclear exactly what items have been affected, but efforts are now underway to track down and bring back objects as the economic crime command of the Met Police has launched an investigation.Hartwig Fischer said in a statement: "This is a highly unusual incident.
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