Antiquities dealer who exposed thefts at British Museum dies aged 61 | British Museum

The academic, an antiquities dealer who revealed that hundreds of artifacts were stolen from the British Museum, died at the age of 61.

Dr Ittai Gradel from Denmark alerted the British Museum and police after he was able to buy dozens of museum artefacts from eBay over several years.

Gradel died of kidney cancer days after receiving a rarely presented medal from the museum in recognition of what the museum’s director described as his “very significant contribution.” accordingly BBC.

More than three years have passed since the museum reported the thefts to Scotland Yard after pressure from Gradel, but the police investigation is still ongoing. Before he died in a nursing home in Denmark, Gradel, who would have been a key witness in any trial, told the BBC it was “a bit frustrating” that he would not live to see the case resolved.

Gradel had tried to persuade the museum to investigate the thefts in 2021 when he suspected that precious stones in the museum’s collections were being sold online for prices as low as a few pounds each. He initially accused the museum of stonewalling him and “sweeping everything under the rug.”

Two years later, after its own investigation, the museum announced that 2,000 items in its collection, mostly classical jewels and gold jewelry from the ancient Mediterranean region, had been stolen, lost or damaged.

The events, which made headlines around the world, led to the resignation of the museum’s then-director, Hartwig Fischer. Fischer admitted that “it was clear that the British Museum had not responded as comprehensively as it should have” to Gradel’s previous warnings.

Gradel reported that he and other antique dealers had unintentionally purchased items from the British Museum’s collection online. He said he suspected a senior curator at the museum of stealing and provided a PayPal receipt with the name of the curator he suspected of selling them, Peter Higgs.

Higgs, an expert on Greek antiquities, denies any wrongdoing. He worked at the British Museum for 30 years before being fired.

But the museum ignored Gradel’s concerns, even after he persuaded another seller to return the olive drab gemstone he had purchased on eBay.

Five months later, the museum’s then-deputy director, Jonathan Williams, wrote a letter to Gradel, saying that all the objects had been accounted for and that his claims were unfounded. The thief then allegedly prepared a fake handwritten note stating that the precious stone in question had been stolen in 1963.

Before he died, director Nicholas Cullinan wrote a letter to Gradel awarding him the British Museum medal, saying it was “a sign of our respect… in recognition of our expertise and passionate determination that wrongs must be righted.”

Gradel was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1965 to a British father and Danish mother, and moved to Denmark when he was two years old. He moved to England at the age of 18 and quickly fell in love with the British Museum.

His cancer was first diagnosed in 2010 and recurred in 2022. He said he knew he “had to finish this job before he fell on his death bed.”

“I did not do the museum a favor by exposing these thefts, because it damaged the institution. But I had no choice. But I did the museum a great favor by helping the museum get new and better management.”

In total, Gradel signed back to the British Museum more than 360 works he purchased online. The museum has since announced plans to digitize its collection.