Art & specie

Written by Karen Malik

Key developments in 2024

Following reports in 2023 that the British Museum had discovered that around 2,000 artefacts were either lost or damaged, it has this year concluded its internal investigation.  The Museum found that it had not been compliant with UK legislation regarding how such artefacts should be kept.  The Public Records Act requires all UK museums and libraries to meet basic standards of preservation, access and professional care.  The consequences of such failings can mean collections being transferred elsewhere or handed over to the National Archives, although it seems the British Museum may be spared this outcome.  The Museum is working with the National Archives to ensure their future compliance.  This will include the introduction of new policies, such as defining what comprises its collection, introducing a policy for registering items, and improving its policy for reporting unlocated items.  

The key items targeted appear to have been unregistered items, mainly gems and jewellery.  Around 600 items have been recovered.  It is estimated that there will be a large number of items which cannot be recovered because they have most likely been sold for scrap.  
The British Museum's failings and resulting loss of artefacts is a reminder to private collectors and their insurers of the importance of documenting and securing collections appropriately, especially where they include smaller items which may more easily disappear, whether through theft or otherwise.  Documenting collections adequately not only reduces the likelihood of items becoming lost or stolen but will also ensure that if an item is stolen the chances of recovery are greatly increased.

What to look out for in 2025

Disputes over cultural property and calls to return artefacts to their country of origin will continue through 2025, with The Economist's World Ahead 2025 report perhaps rashly predicting that the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum may be returned to Greece, albeit only as a loan.  
A recent example highlighting the need for the calls for the repatriation of cultural property to be addressed by the industry, or else through legislation, has been the listing for sale of human and ancestral remains including shrunken heads and skulls.  Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy has asked the Deputy Prime Minister to commit the government to end the practice.  Whilst the Human Tissue Act 2004 regulates the display of human remains it does not cover sales or purchases, and only applies to human remains under 100 years old so many historic remains fall outside of the existing legislation. It seems that new legislation may be required to close this loophole.

There will continue to be calls for items such as these to be repatriated to their country of origin.  Some suggest that such items were given as gifts, or by way of barter, but it is acknowledged that others may have been taken away without the consent of their owners.  There will be difficulties around how to establish whether items were collected ethically and how and to whom they should be returned, if at all. 

Insurers will need to continue to be alive to the risks involved in insuring human remains and any cultural property, for example the value of an item may be impacted by increasing calls for items to be removed from sale and for repatriation.  

Explore Annual Insurance Review 2025