England Museums Search for Over 1,700 Missing Artifacts – The… Strange Things 'Not Found'

After the dismissal of a member of the staff of the British Museum for the disappearance of more than 2,000 exhibitsmuseums and galleries in Englandwho receive public funding, were asked to give detailed lists of items that have disappeared over the past 20 years. Thus, it emerged that among the more than 1,700 objects that have been lost from the country's Museums, there is also a fake mustache and a painting of Queen Victoria.

Other strange missing items are a diary of Saddam Hussein and an aircraft navigation system, according to the BBC. The National Portrait Gallery in London, which reopened in 2023 after a three-year renovation, has 45 “unaccounted for” objects – but its management insists they are not missing or stolen.

Between 2007 and 2022, a painting of Queen Victoria from 1869, a mid-19th century engraving of King John granting the Magna Carta, a bronze sculpture by the painter Thomas Stothard “have not been detected». Oil and watercolor paintings, a puppet, a fake moustache, socks and a mousetrap were among more than 180 items missing from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

“This does not mean that these items have been stolen or lost, it could mean for example that a catalog entry has not been updated after a collection move. The objects are regularly recovered as a result of this process,” said a representative of the Museum, according to the APE-BPE.

More than 550 items, private papers of British army officers, a diary with a photo of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, bayonets and banknotes have been lost since Imperial War Museum. From Greenwich Institution Museums 245 items have been lost, including a cannonball, compasses, maps, telescopes and an aircraft navigation system.