The British Museum has fired a employees member on suspicion of looting jewels from a storeroom and began a evaluation of its safety practices, the museum introduced Wednesday.

The employee, who has not been named, stole or broken gadgets together with gold jewellery and “gems of semi-precious stones and glass” courting from the fifteenth century B.C. to the nineteenth century A.D., the museum said in a news release.

London’s police drive mentioned in an announcement that it was conducting an investigation, however that there had not been any arrests and that its “enquiries continue.”

Because of the police investigation, the museum wouldn’t touch upon the worth of the lacking gadgets or give any extra particulars about them, a museum spokeswoman mentioned in a phone interview. The museum mentioned that almost all of the gadgets had been small items saved in a storeroom. None had not too long ago been on public show, the museum mentioned, including that “they were kept primarily for academic and research purposes.”

George Osborne, the museum’s chair, mentioned within the news launch that the museum was now working to get well the gadgets and would “do whatever it takes, with investment in security and collections records, to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

“It’s a sad day for all who love our British Museum, but we’re determined to right the wrongs and use the experience to build a stronger museum,” Osborne mentioned.

The thefts are removed from the primary on the London establishment. In 2017, the museum introduced that six years earlier it lost a diamond Cartier ring price virtually 1,000,000 {dollars}. In 2004, 15 items of Chinese jewellery were stolen in opening hours, whereas in 2002 a 2,500-year-old Greek marble head was taken from atop a plinth.

Several different European museums have additionally been victims of theft not too long ago. Last 12 months, thieves stole a cache of almost 500 ancient gold coins from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, Bavaria. In 2019, a heist at Dresden’s Green Vault museum led to about €100 million, some $108 million, price of jewels going lacking. In May, 5 males were convicted for their role in that heist, and far of the jewellery has been recovered.

Christopher A. Marinello, a lawyer who works on recovering stolen artwork, mentioned in a phone interview that thefts from museums had been “a big problem” worldwide and sometimes concerned employees. Still, he added, “for this to happen at the British Museum is extremely embarrassing and alarming.”