Theft, cover-up, a corrosive culture - inside the BM

The disappearance of large numbers of priceless artefacts has revealed deeper problems at the British Museum, former trustees and museum insiders tell Robert Dex

- Robert Dex

WHEN the great and the good gathered at the British Museum for the Museum of the Year awards barely two months ago, the hosts could be forgiven for feeling self-satisfied. The choice of the venue pushed the point home that, regardless of who won on the night, the venerable Bloomsbury institution remained first among equals. Little did they know it was all about to come crashing down. Just weeks later, the BM, as it's known, announced some of its eight million-strong collection was "missing, stolen or damaged" - an admission that plunged the institution into the worst crisis in its more than 250-year history.

As many as 2,000 items are believed to have been taken over a number of years. Now the BM has lost its director, Hartwig Fischer, who stood down as the scale of the scandal became clear, and appointed a temporary replacement, dismissed a curator accused of theft and launched its own independent review of security.

Former trustee Ahdaf Soueif (pictured below) said she hoped the whole sorry affair would be an opportunity for the museum to "move forward" but others say that is impossible without wholesale change. People we spoke to were utterly dismayed at the situation, while the "corrosive" effects of the scandal continues to damage the institution's international standing and the reputation of the people who work there.

These comments paint a picture of an inflexible cultural monolith that lectures the world but fails to keep its own house in order. It promises visitors, of whom there were more than four million last year, the chance to experience "two million years of human history and culture" spread across miles of galleries in its historic building on Great Russell Street. The venue is home to vast numbers of priceless treasures from Egyptian mummy masks to one of a kind Roman glassware and sketches by old masters.