British Museum theft: Labour MP bats for returning stolen artefacts to their country of origin

Labour MPBell Ribeiro-Addy has slammed the British Musem for refusing to return the stolen goods and artefacts to the country of their origin due to security reasons.Ribeiro-Addy said the recent thefts at the museum exposed the"insulting ridiculousness" of the institution's stance on the issue.

"One of the most insulting reasons that they’ve given is that the other countries that these items belong to would either not be able to take care of them or they are likely to be stolen. But you’ve got people in this country putting them on eBay,"Ribeiro-Addy was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

The Labour MP, who is also the chair of theall-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, said the 1963 law that prohibits the return of objects such as the Parthenon marbles and the Benin bronzes should be changed.

"What makes it more awful is that they’ve been so lax about the suspected theft of other people’s items that they haven’t even bothered to assess what it is that they have....to know exactly what’s been stolen," she added.

The controversial law, enacted by royal assent in 1963 states: "Itshall be the duty of the Trustees of the British Museum to keep the objects comprised in the collections of the Museum within the authorised repositories of the Museum, except in so far as they may consider it expedient to remove them temporarily for any purpose connected with the administration of the Museum and the care of its collections."

What happened at the British Museum?

The parliamentarian's statement comes nearly a fortnight after the British Museum in London said nearly 2,000 antiquities had been stolen.The stolen items, worth millions of pounds allegedly include gold, jewellery, gems and semi-precious stones that date from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD.

The stolen items were not on display, and the museum kept them in the storeroom belonging to one of the collections. They also used the antiquities for academic and research work.

Last week,Hartwig Fischer, the director of the museum, resigned from his position and admitted that his response to the warnings that an employee may have been stealing items should have been better and that the failings “must ultimately” rest with him.

“It is evident that the British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have,” said Fischer.

(With inputs from agencies)

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