More than 600 items stolen from British Empire museum: police
The items, many of which were donations, provide insight into a multi-layered part of British history
[LONDON] More than 600 items from a collection documenting the links between Britain and countries in the former British Empire were stolen from a UK museum in September, the police said on Thursday (Dec 11).
Avon and Somerset police have launched an appeal for information about four men captured on closed-circuit television images on Sep 25, outside a building in the south-western city of Bristol which housed items from the collection.
“More than 600 artefacts of various descriptions were taken by the offenders,” the police said in a statement about the theft from the British Empire and Commonwealth collection.
“The theft of many items which carry a significant cultural value is a significant loss for the city,” said Dan Burgan, the officer in the case.
“These items, many of which were donations, form part of a collection that provides insight into a multi-layered part of British history.”
As well as jewellery and military medals, badges and pins, other stolen items included decorative artefacts such as carved ivory, silver pieces and bronze figurines.
A number of natural history pieces, including geological specimens, were also taken.
The police said they wanted to talk to four unidentified men, all wearing caps or hoodies, seen in CCTV images carrying bags in the early hours.
They said the burglary happened between 1 and 2 am on Sep 25, in the city’s Cumberland Road area.
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The collection “documents the links between Britain and countries in the British Empire from the late 19th century to recent times”.
It contains diverse objects, many of them from the Pacific islands and clothing from African nations.
There are also photographs, films, personal papers as well as sound recordings to provide “insights into diverse lives and landscapes during a challenging and controversial period of history”, the website adds.
The collection had been transferred from the former British Empire & Commonwealth Museum in Bristol when it closed in 2012.
It remained in the care of the city council, Bristol Museums – which encompasses five different institutions – and the city’s archives.
The revelation comes after thieves stole crown jewels from the Louvre in Paris in October.
In August 2023, the British Museum in London revealed that some 1,800 items had been taken from its world-renowned collections by a former employee. A few hundred were later recovered.
The museum’s director Hartwig Fischer resigned in August 2023 after admitting the institution did not act “as it should have” on warnings that items had gone missing. AFP
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