Thursday 9 May 2024

UK: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Ely Antiquities Thieves Climb Through Window on Camera

 

UK antiquities thieves caught on camera, all you need are two hoodies, a big stick and a black bag to pack the loot in, and you are well-fixed to nick a couple of hundred quid's worth of gold antiquities from a poorly-secured museum in Bonkers Backwards Britain (Mousumi Bakshi, Harriet Heywood, "Police release CCTV footage of museum torc theft" BBC News 9 May 2024)

Police have released CCTV footage of two people after gold objects dating back 3,000 years were stolen from a museum. The Bronze Age jewellery - a gold torc and a gold bracelet - were stolen during a break-in at Ely Museum, Cambridgeshire, on Tuesday.[...] Police hope the footage will "jog memories" of people with information [...] Cambridgeshire Police said the museum was broken into between 00:00 and 02:00 BST. In footage released by the force, two people can be seen entering the building through a window and then quickly moving past a security camera in the venue. [...] [police say they are] "very keen to hear from anyone who may be able to provide information or saw two people on e-scooters in the vicinity of the museum, car park and pedestrian walkways at the back of the museum, the council offices and the Grange Car Park"

Watch the video, it's not a very good advert for the firm that made those "security doors" at the museum entrance. Why is the gallery accessible from the netrance without a barrier in place at light? How much are all the rest of the antiquities in Ely Museum worth? How much are they insured for? Which insurance firm gave them a policy to cover that amount of money without inspecting the premises and ascertaining the security risk? Bonkers.

Oh, and by the way... in case anyone is wondering if this is a theft to order. More likely that after the fuss has died down somewhat these objects will surface in a pub somewhere (in the EU or USA -they buy this sort of thing in Japan too)  masqyuerading as fresh MD finds that the finder does not want to report, and be shgiften in a private treaty sale to a collector who does not ask too many questions about where artefacts he wants come from. There is a lot of it about. 

 

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