British Museum says staff member dismissed after items were found to be missing, stolen or damaged

[lapucelle]

2. This is an incredible story, but there is a certain delicious irony

considering that the British Museum is on the other side of the fence concerning priceless "stolen" (and definitely damaged) ancient artifacts.

After 220 Years, the Fate of the Parthenon Marbles Rests in Secret Talks

The British Museum and Greece’s prime minister are getting closer to a deal on returning the so-called Elgin Marbles to Athens. But key differences remain.

When Lord Elgin, a British aristocrat, sailed home from Greece in the early 1800s, he also shipped to England some of the greatest treasures of antiquity: a collection that included statues of Greek gods and carved frieze panels depicting battling centaurs that once decorated the Parthenon in Athens.

Torn in some cases from the temple walls, ostensibly with the permission of the Ottomans who then ruled Greece, the so-called Elgin Marbles were later sold to the British government and became some of the most storied artifacts in the collection of the British Museum.

But they also became, almost from the very day they were removed, the subject of perhaps the world’s most notorious cultural dispute.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/17/arts/design/parthenon-sculptures-elgin-marbles-negotiations.html