According to The Guardian, a British politician shed light on the alleged thefts at the British Museum, stating that the episode revealed the "insulting ridiculousness" of the museum's decision to withhold returning the in question goods to their nation of origin for security reasons.
A 1963 statute that forbade the return of artifacts like the Parthenon Marbles and the Benin Bronzes, according to Labour MP for Streatham Bell Ribeiro-Addy, should be revised.
"One of the more ridiculous justifications they've offered is that the other nations to which these objects belong either wouldn't be able to care for them or they would probably be stolen. However, you have people in this nation selling them on eBay, claimed Ribeiro-Addy.
The fact that they have been so careless with regard to the alleged theft of other people's property makes it much worse, she continued. "They haven't even bothered to assess what it is that they have in order to know exactly what has been stolen."
The legislator made his remarks after the museum revealed last week that some of the 2,000 stolen objects, including jewelry and jewels, had been found. The matter was being looked into by the police.
Hartwig Fischer, the museum's director, submitted his resignation on August 25 and stated that he accepted responsibility for his slow response to warnings about possible artifact thefts in 2021. Jonathan Williams, the deputy director of the museum, will not perform his duties until a thorough independent investigation has been conducted.
Fischer will remain in place until an interim director is chosen, who will supposedly be revealed by this week's end. A representative for the British Museum stated that there were no further delays in the procedure.
The museum retrieving some of the stolen pieces, according to George Osborne, former Conservative chancellor and current chair of the museum's board of trustees, is a "silver lining to a dark cloud."
Calls from some quarters to return goods to their nation of origin have gained new force as a result of the discovery of stolen artifacts.
We collaborate with museums and localities all over the world, and we lend more than 4,000 pieces each year. We are committed to providing as many people with access to our collection as we can. Guardian cited a spokesman for the British Museum.
"We take the preservation of every item in our collection very seriously, and fortunately, such occurrences are exceedingly uncommon. In order to prevent this from happening again, we have already changed the pertinent security arrangements and started an independent study that will produce additional recommendations.
