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FBI investigates missing ancient treasures from the British Museum

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  • Author, Katie Razzall, Darin Graham and Larissa Kennelly
  • Role, BBC News

The FBI is investigating the sale of allegedly hundreds of treasures from the British Museum to US buyers.

According to the BBC, US law enforcement authorities also assisted in the return of 268 items that the museum said belonged to it and had been sold to a collector in Washington DC.

The British Museum announced last year that ancient gems, jewelry and other items from its collection were missing, stolen or damaged.

A buyer from New Orleans told the BBC that an FBI agent sent him an email asking for information about two pieces he had purchased on eBay.

The FBI agent said they were assisting the Metropolitan Police in investigating missing or stolen items from the museum.

The buyer said he no longer had possession of the gems and did not believe they had been tracked down by authorities. The FBI did not request any further information from him.

Image source, Getty Images

Image description, The British Museum says 626 of an estimated 1,500 stolen or missing items have been recovered so far

The British Museum estimates that of the 1,500 stolen or missing items, 626 have so far been recovered and 100 more have been found but not yet returned.

The vast majority of items the museum believes were stolen were uncatalogued, and the museum is still looking for ways to prove they came from its collection. In some cases, collectors must agree to donate items to the museum so staff can examine them.

The British Museum has accused senior curator Peter Higgs of stealing, damaging, melting down and selling ancient artifacts. He denies the allegations.

The museum estimates that Dr Higgs pocketed an estimated £100,000 in total.

According to court documents in a civil case the museum is bringing against Dr. Higgs, the museum believes he has been stealing items and selling mostly unregistered items from the museum’s storage facilities for at least a decade.

The museum believes that the dismissed Dr. Higgs sold items to at least 45 buyers on eBay.

Dr. Higgs is defending himself against the civil suit brought against him.

No one was arrested or charged with a crime.

Image description, Dr. Peter Higgs denies the British Museum’s allegations against him

Three buyers reported that the seller “sultan1966” identified himself as “Paul Higgins” or “Paul” on eBay or via email.

According to court documents, the museum stated that Dr. Higgs admitted that the sultan1966 account belonged to him.

New Orleans buyer Tonio Birbiglia told the BBC he bought two items from sultan1966.

We confirmed this by comparing the eBay records cited by the FBI with Mr. Birbiglia’s receipts.

The British Museum has not yet examined these objects and therefore cannot yet determine whether they come from its collection.

One of these was an amethyst gemstone depicting Cupid – the Roman god of love – riding a dolphin, which Mr Birbiglia bought for £42 in May 2016.

The other was an orange scarab gemstone which he purchased for £170. Mr Birbiglia sent his payment for this item to a PayPal account registered to Dr Higgs’ personal email address.

Image description, Mr Birbiglia has since confirmed to the BBC that it is a picture of the beetle jewel

Mr Birbiglia, who was working for an antique gallery at the time, said he was “completely shocked” when the FBI contacted him. He said he had probably bought the gems to resell them, adding: “I don’t remember any of it.”

Mr Birbiglia told the special counsel he could not remember anything about the gems. He asked the FBI for more information, such as pictures, so he could try to determine where they might have ended up.

Neither the FBI agent, the museum nor the British police followed up on the incident, Birbiglia said, so the two gems have not yet been tracked down by authorities.

“The whole thing just seemed like they (the FBI) ​​were just going to brush it off,” he said. “He (the agent) didn’t put in a lot of effort.”

According to the BBC’s knowledge, the FBI also assisted in the investigation of 268 items in the Washington DC area sold by the same seller.

A source close to the buyer told the BBC he bought the items from sultan1966 on eBay – and then negotiated directly with the same seller via email – paying up to £7,000 for the items. According to the source, the seller used the name “Paul Higgins” in the transactions.

According to the BBC, the gems have now been handed over to the British Museum, where ownership investigations are currently underway.

However, the United States is not the only place where the items sold by the seller could have ended up.

Danish antiques dealer Dr. Ittai Gradel, who first alerted the museum to the thefts, has tracked down artifacts sold to buyers in several cities, including Hamburg, Cologne, Paris and Hong Kong.

Some of the gemstones that he had bought himself in good faith and then sold on to another private collector ended up in the German Gemstone Museum in Idar-Oberstein. They were loaned to the museum for an exhibition.

One of the gems is believed to be a rare head of the 2nd century Greek hero Hercules, made of obsidian, a type of volcanic glass.

The gemstone, estimated to be worth several thousand pounds, was one of the most valuable exhibits and appeared as a full-page photograph at the beginning of the exhibition catalogue.

In 2017, Dr Ittai Gradel paid £300 for the item, which was offered in a private store under the pseudonym Paul Higgins used by Dr Higgs.

In emails seen by the BBC, Dr Gradel learned from the seller that the painting belonged to his sibling, who had inherited it from his grandmother.

“I believe it is glass – very nicely sculpted little head, about 3cm high. I don’t know if you are interested in such things, but if so, we are open to offers,” the seller wrote.

The two gems are uncatalogued, but the British Museum believes they came from its collection. They have since been returned to the UK and handed over to museum staff.

Thief in the British Museum

BBC’s Katie Razzall uncovers the story behind the thefts from the British Museum and the hunt for the stolen objects.

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