Suspect in British Museum theft scandal named as veteran 30-year curator

Peter Higgs is the man accused of stealing from the British Museum (Image: Telegraph) The man accused of stealing priceless artefacts from the British museum is a senior curator of 30 years, according to The Telegraph . Peter Higgs, who lost his job as the curator of Mediterranean cultures earlier this year, is a leading expert on antiquities and has written books to accompany some of the museum’s flagship collections. His family have said he is innocent and that they expect him to clear his name. The 56-year-old father-of-two had worked at the internationally renowned museum since 1993, however was sacked after his bosses accused him of stealing several items, including gold jewellery, semi-precious stones and glass from between 1,500BC and the 1800s. The items vanished over a number of years and a few had emerged on eBay as far back as 2016. The museum is internationally respected (Image: Getty) Greg Higgs, the curator’s 21-year-old son, told The Telegraph: “He’s with family currently for a bit of support because it’s been very hard, losing half of our income pretty suddenly.  “At this point he doesn’t even really care what people think of him, he just wants a chance to live a normal life.” “It gets to that point sometimes where even if you’re innocent you’d just rather not have everyone speak to you all the time about it, at least from the museum. “He’s lost all faith in the museum.” Earlier, Sky News’ Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: “I think the museum must be pretty embarrassed about what seems to have been an inside job, or at least a theft with some inside help, because it certainly lept into action.” His comments came after a statement from Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, who said: “The museum apologises for what has happened, but we have now brought an end to this – and we are determined to put things right. “We have already tightened our security arrangements and we are working alongside outside experts to complete a definitive account of what is missing, damaged and stolen. This will allow us to throw our efforts into the recovery of objects.” George Osborne, chairman of the British Museum, was uncompromising in his position.  He said: “The trustees of the British Museum were extremely concerned when we learnt earlier this year that items of the collection had been stolen. “The trustees have taken decisive action to deal with the situation, working with the team at the museum. “We called in the police, imposed emergency measures to increase security, set up an independent review into what happened and lessons to learn, and used all the disciplinary powers available to us to deal with the individual we believe to be responsible.”