The US FBI investigates the online sale to buyers in the United States of objects stolen in recent years from the British Museum, according to the BBC.

The UK public broadcaster recalls that the security agency already helped to recover recently about 268 uncatalogued pieces which were sold to a Washington DC collector.

The station also recalls how the Danish antiques dealer Ittai Gradel alerted the London museum in 2021 about units that he purchased from a supplier named ‘sultan1966’ on eBaywhich he suspected came from the institution.

Although the museum initially ignored it, in 2023 he had to apologize, by corroborating on his own that almost 2,000 pieces had actually disappeared from his collection, generally small Greek or Roman gems or coins that were not cataloged or exhibited.

A buyer from New Orleans confirmed to the BBC that he had been contacted by the FBI on behalf of the London Metropolitan Police (Met, or Scotland Yard) about certain objects, which this American also acquired from sultan1966.

Later investigators determined that this seller It was actually Peter Higgs, one of the London museum’s conservation experts, who was fired in 2023 and is now facing trial in London, although he denies the charges.

On May 17, the British Museum reported that it has managed to recover a total of 626 of the almost 2,000 objects from his collection, the theft of which he detected in 2023 and which the Police are still investigating.

The president of the institution, George Osborne, consigned the return of those pieces from various parts of the worldafter the majority were sold online, and how to compensate those buyers who returned them is still being analyzed.

After confirming last year the absence of the objects’ warehouse, to a large extent Greek and Roman vestigesfor which there was no formal record, the then director, Hartwig Fischer, resigned and was replaced permanently in March by Nicholas Cullinan.

The British Museum shows some of the recovered pieces, that were not normally on display to the public, in the Rediscovering Gems exhibition, which is open until June 15.