Museology

The British Museum went to court Tuesday against a former curator alleged to have stolen hundreds of artifacts from its collections and offered them for sale online .

A regional laboratory in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, home of many different civilizations spanning thousands of years, has performed maintenance and repair works on approximately 1,252 artifacts in 2023 to shed light on cultural history and exhibit them in museums.

What is provided by the Ministry of Culture for the storage and maintenance of their objects, facilities and activities

Following the aftermath of floods that hit the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa last year, Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum and Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum, which were badly damaged, have reopened their doors to visitors in just 11 months, after repair and maintenance work was completed.

New York's American Museum of Natural History closed two halls featuring Native American objects starting on Jan. 27 acknowledging the exhibits are "severely outdated" and contain culturally sensitive items.

Experts have confirmed that at least 20 religious icons from a haul of more than 50 seized by the police in Athens on Wednesday are historically significant and protected by cultural heritage laws.

The icons were seized in the southern Athens suburb of Moschato from a 43-year-old man who claimed to have acquired them from a woman, aged 74, who has also been arrested. 

Museums in Bulgaria insist on receiving 50% more money next year for the maintenance and modernization of the fund storage and exhibition halls, as well as for raising wages in the sector, as there is a mass departure of specialists. At the moment, there is a serious imbalance between education and culture, the chairman of the Association "Bulgarian Museums" Boris Hadjiyski told BNR.

Türkiye witnessed a notable surge in its museum and cultural heritage numbers in 2022, according to the latest data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

The report highlights significant growth in the number of museums, artworks, visitors and cultural properties, signaling a recovery in the cultural sector after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The ethics of the British Museum is once again called into question," comments the Association of Greek Archaeologists on the theft and sale of 2,000 objects from the British Museum. "An unprecedented event in the history of museums internationally," it highlights.

The number of artifacts that have disappeared from the British Museum is estimated at 2,000, chairman of trustees George Osborne said on Aug. 26, admitting the collection did not have a complete catalogue.

The U.K.'s former chancellor described the missing pieces as "small items of jewelry, gems, bits of gold that were not on public display."