Museum loses £750k Cartier ring – and it’s not insured
THE British Museum failed to insure a £750,000 Cartier diamond ring which has gone missing from its collection, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Museum bosses have admitted they won’t be able to recover the cost of the ring, which actually vanished six years ago but has only now been declared lost.
The piece, bequeathed by an anonymous donor, went missing from the heritage and asset collection in 2011.
Staff called in police but they declined to take any further action because there was no proof the ring had been removed from the museum’s Central London base. Three internal searches failed to uncover the object. Experts say that, if the ring has been stolen, it will be practically impossible to find the diamond because it probably will have been recut.
The loss of the ring has remained a secret until now because of rules which state an item can only be regarded as officially lost if its whereabouts have been unknown for five years. The museum has now reported the loss to the Department for Culture Media and Sport, which has included the fact in its annual report.
Michael Daley, of watchdog ArtwatchUK, criticised the museum’s failure to insure the ring. He said: ‘How dim-witted does an institution have to be not realise that an item like this has to be insured? Of course if someone steals part of the Parthenon they are not going to be able to sell it on… but it’s a different story with a ring like this.’
The British Museum last night confirmed the ring had not been insured ‘in common with objects in national collections’.