The Great British Heist: Museum finally recovers some of 2,000 stolen items

Recovery of 2,000 items stolen from the British Museum has begun with some finally making their way back to the museum.

A staff member that the museum believes may have been involved in the items being stolen has been fired.

Hartwig Fischer, the museum's director will be stepping down from his position immediately after he accepted an investigation in 2021 had been mishandled.

George Osbourne, Chairman of the British Museum since 2021has said the situation is "a mess we are going to clear up" after agreeing that the museum's reputation has suffered.

Osbourne said in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "We believe we have been victims of thefts over a long period of time and frankly more could have been done to prevent them."

The British Museum has been under serious pressure since they revealed earlier this month that treasures and artefacts from the museum were "missing, stolen and damaged".

When talking about where and how the missing items had been found, Osbourne said hoped "honest people" would return the missing items but has acknowledged that not all of them may be returned.

The Chairman also revealed that not all items were "properly catalogued and registered" and implied that "someone with knowledge of what is not registered has a big advantage in removing" the items.

Christos Tsirogniannis is a forensic archaeologist who also chairs the Unesco group that has dedicated itself to preventing antiquities trafficking.

He described the thefts at the British Museum as the worst in modern history, telling BBC News: "It is by far the biggest theft that I know about from a museum, especially for one of this calibre. It's a massive amount for any museum, but this happening at the British Museum makes it even worse."

The museum is now working closely with the police to be able to establish what has gone missing, Mr Osbourne has called it a "forensic job" and added that security at the museum must be improved. 

Although, no arrests have been made a suspect man has been interviewed by the Metropolitan Police.