Hundreds of British Empire artifacts stolen from UK museum as police release images of men carrying bags
More than 600 objects from a collection documenting links between Britain and countries of the former British Empire were stolen from a British museum in September, police said Thursday.
Avon and Somerset Police have appealed for information about four men captured on CCTV footage on September 25 outside a building in the south-west city of Bristol which housed items from the collection.
“More than 600 items of various descriptions were taken by the offenders,” police said in a statement about the theft from the British Empire and Commonwealth collection.
“The theft of numerous items of significant cultural value represents a significant loss to the city,” said case officer Dan Burgan. “These objects, many of which were donations, are part of a collection that provides insight into a multi-layered part of British history.”
Police said they wanted to speak to four unidentified men, all wearing caps or hoodies, seen on CCTV footage carrying bags in the early hours. Authorities released several CCTV footage showing grainy images of the men.
Police said one man was stocky and wore a white cap; the second man was thin and wore a gray hooded jacket; the third man wore a green cap and seemed to walk with a slight limp in his right leg; and the fourth man wore a two-tone orange and navy blue/black down jacket.
Police said the burglary happened between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Sept. 25 in the Cumberland Road area.
According to the collection’s website, “this unique collection documents the connections between Britain and the countries of the British Empire from the late 19th century to the present day.”
It contains various items, many from the Pacific Islands and clothing from African countries.
There are also photographs, films, personal documents as well as sound recordings to provide “an insight into diverse lives and landscapes during a difficult and controversial period in history”, the website adds.
The collection was moved from the former British Empire & Commonwealth Museum in Bristol when it closed in 2012.
It remained in the care of the city council, as well as Bristol Museums, which includes five different institutions, and the city archives.
The revelation comes later thieves stole the crown jewels from the Louvrein Paris, in October.
And last month, dozens of ancient gold coins were stolen when a Swiss museum, after a guard was overpowered by thieves, the police said.
In August 2023, the British Museum in London revealed that some 1,800 objects had been removed from its world-famous collections by a former employee. Items including “gold jewelry and semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD”, were found “missing, stolen or damaged”, according to the report. the museum told CBS News at the time.
A few hundred were retrieved later.
The museum’s director, Hartwig Fischer, resigned in August 2023 after admitting that the institution had not acted “as it should have” in the face of warnings about the disappearance of objects.
