British Museum Will Make Digital Copies of Its Objects
2023-10-31
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1The British Museum, in London, recently announced plans to make digital copies of all the objects it keeps.
2The museum said in August that about 2,000 items had been stolen or were missing.
3The museum is one of the busiest in the world.
4It holds objects such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Marbles - known as the Elgin Marbles - and ancient stones and jewelry.
5The leader, or chair of the museum, is George Osborne.
6He recently told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of Parliament that he believed a person who worked at the museum was responsible.
7Osborne called it "an inside job by someone...who the museum had put trust in."
8He said the person took items from the museum little by little.
9The museum's director at the time was German art historian Hartwig Fischer.
10Fischer left the job in August after serving since 2016.
11He said the blame for the thefts "must ultimately" rest with him.
12He added the museum did not react as it should have when concerns first came up that someone had been stealing.
13"There are lots of lessons to be learned," Osborne said.
14The museum head said about 350 of the 2,000 items have been found and are in the process of being returned.
15Stolen items included gold rings, earrings and other jewelry from the ancient Greek and Roman times.
16The director of the museum for the time being is Mark Jones.
17He said the museum is confident "that a theft of this kind can never happen again."
18Jones added that one way to improve the museum's security is to show more items to the public instead of, as he said, "simply by locking items away."
19The project to digitize about 8 million items will take five years.
20In September, the museum asked for help in finding the missing items.
21The organization launched a phone number for people to call if they had information.
22I'm Dan Friedell.
1The British Museum, in London, recently announced plans to make digital copies of all the objects it keeps. The museum said in August that about 2,000 items had been stolen or were missing. 2The museum is one of the busiest in the world. 3It holds objects such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Marbles - known as the Elgin Marbles - and ancient stones and jewelry. 4The leader, or chair of the museum, is George Osborne. He recently told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of Parliament that he believed a person who worked at the museum was responsible. 5Osborne called it "an inside job by someone...who the museum had put trust in." He said the person took items from the museum little by little. 6The museum's director at the time was German art historian Hartwig Fischer. Fischer left the job in August after serving since 2016. He said the blame for the thefts "must ultimately" rest with him. He added the museum did not react as it should have when concerns first came up that someone had been stealing. 7"There are lots of lessons to be learned," Osborne said. 8The museum head said about 350 of the 2,000 items have been found and are in the process of being returned. 9Stolen items included gold rings, earrings and other jewelry from the ancient Greek and Roman times. 10The director of the museum for the time being is Mark Jones. He said the museum is confident "that a theft of this kind can never happen again." Jones added that one way to improve the museum's security is to show more items to the public instead of, as he said, "simply by locking items away." 11The project to digitize about 8 million items will take five years. 12In September, the museum asked for help in finding the missing items. The organization launched a phone number for people to call if they had information. 13I'm Dan Friedell. 14Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by Reuters. 15__________________________________________________ 16Words in This Story 17digital -adj. existing in electronic form on a computer 18item -n. an individual or separate thing 19theft -n. an act of stealing 20ultimately -adv. in the end 21lock -v. to secure something with a lock so it cannot be reached by people who are not permitted to get to it 22We want to hear from you. Where do you think the museum's items wound up? Will they all get returned?