LONDON — Police in southwestern England are searching for four people in connection with the theft of more than 600 artifacts from a museum’s British Empire and Commonwealth collection, in what authorities described as a “high-value burglary.”
Police appealed to the public Thursday for information on four men wanted for questioning in relation to the robbery, which occurred in the early hours of Sept. 25 at the Bristol Museum.
The stolen items included jewelry; decorative artworks like carved ivory, silver items and bronze figurines; military medals and badges; and natural history pieces like geological specimens, according to Bristol City Council, which oversees the museum.
The museum’s website says its British Empire and Commonwealth collection consists of “household belongings, souvenirs, photographs and papers of British people who lived and worked in the colonies” from the late 19th century to more recent decades. That includes 2,000 films and 500,000 photographs.
Philip Walker, the head of culture and creative industries at Bristol City Council, said in a statement that security at the museum had been tightened after the robbery.
Police said they had issued the public appeal after an audit of the museum’s inventory was carried out to determine which items had been stolen, and after making their own attempts to identify the people in the CCTV images.
Such thefts have gained heightened public attention since a group of thieves broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris on Oct. 19 and made away with royal jewels valued at $100 million. Several people have been arrested over that heist, including four who have been charged with criminal conspiracy.
In Britain, more than 1,800 artifacts from the British Museum’s collections were stolen or damaged in 2023, and hundreds were sold on eBay, according to court documents. The museum has since sued a former curator, whom it accuses of the thefts. The curator, Peter Higgs, has disputed the accusations.
In the Bristol Museum case, police said in a statement that between 1 and 2 a.m. on Sept. 25, “a group of four unknown males gained entry” to the building that houses the museum’s British Empire and Commonwealth collection.