What! Our national treasures on eBay? For forty quid!  

What a farcical story at one of the world’s most famous museums to end the week’s business. One that holds bad consequences for the people who care most for the  UK’s national treasures.

Earlier this week the news broke of precious national treasures, centuries old, disappearing from the British Museum in London: gold jewellery, semi-precious stones and glass dating back to 1,500 BC.

Midnight skullduggery? 

There was talk of an “inside job” conjuring images of midnight skullduggery and thieves sneaking through unlocked back doors. 

Then it turns out that there was no heist in the dark. Some of the missing jewellery turned up on eBay as far back as 2016. 

A Roman onyx cameo fragment worth up to £50,000 was on eBay for £40! Unbelievably, there were no bids for it.

Experts warned the museum three years ago about its exhibits on eBay.  

To make matters worse for the British Museum, the Daily Telegraph reported, an antiquities expert told the museum three years ago that a number of its exhibits were turning up on the online auction site. 

This means it threatens to be an embarrassing police interview for museum officials as the criminal investigation gets underway into how national treasures ended up on eBay.

Why didn’t they check it out ?

Why didn’t the museum check out the tip-off from the antiquities expert?

Why didn’t the museum update its online inventory of its eight million items – the word is many of the missing items weren’t on it.

The British Museum is carrying out its own internal investigation to make sure it never happens again. It has dismissed a member of staff – who protests his innocence – but little else has been done so far.

Tighter security 

When security is tightened – long after the horse has bolted – it is those who care most about these artefacts: the historians, researchers and professors who will suffer. 

Every time experts want to look at a Saxon coin, they will have to go through even more laborious checks and paperwork. 

This whole mess could have been prevented years ago. The British Museum is run by some of the finest brains in the country – why couldn’t one of them be smart enough to check eBay?