Museums have lost track of treasures worth £1m

Cartier diamond ring and an old washing machine among the thousands of artefacts feared lost forever

BRITAIN might boast some of the best museums in the world, displaying priceless artefacts dating back to the dawn of time.

But it appears some of the rich treasure trove will never be seen by the public, after bosses admitted they had lost thousands of items, worth at least £1 million.

While some artefacts are thought to be sitting in storage units, with curators not knowing where they are, many more are feared lost forever or even stolen.

The Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Imperial War Museum and the British Museum are among establishments that have admitted misplacing items.

While many may only be valuable in historical significance, the British Museum has admitted mislaying a Cartier diamond ring (above), which is estimated to be worth £750,000.

The ring, which was bequeathed to the museum by an anonymous donor, was not on display when it went missing in 2011.

It was finally registered as lost earlier this year and the cost has now been written off by the museum.

Less valuable items that have disappeared from collections include an old tin of talcum powder and an old-fashioned Hotpoint washing machine, from the Science Museum.

The National Museum of Scotland has admitted misplacing a rare piece of quartz, while an important black tie has disappeared from a collection belonging to the Imperial War Museum.

Figures obtained by Sky News following a Freedom of Information request, found that almost 6,000 items had been lost, stolen, misplaced or were officially “unlocated”.

While the majority of items are thought to be in storage somewhere, they have to be classified as unlocated if curators do not know exactly where they are.

Jonathan Newby, deputy director of the Science Museum Group said: “Any object that we can’t locate is unfortunate but this does come down to the record-keeping of museums.

“In the past, record collections started with a card index hand-written, then transcribed into databases that are now not what you would expect from a modern system.” Only a tiny amount of a large museum’s collection will be on display at any one time, with a huge volume of material in storage.

According to the Science Museum in London, it only has room to display around five per cent of its 400,000 piece collection.

The theft of valuable items has also proved a growing issue, with around £80,000 worth of objects reported as stolen.

In 2015, museums and art galleries were warned of a “severe and imminent” threat from thieves targeting priceless artefacts.

In a letter that was sent to all major institutions at the time, the Arts Council warned curators to “ensure that collections are held in facilities offering the best available defence against any attack”.

But William Brown, head of security for the Arts Council, said systems were in place to protect the country’s priceless collections, adding: “Our systems are the envy of many.”