(London) “About 2,000” works of art have been stolen from the British Museum, but some have already been recovered, the president of the prestigious cultural institution said on Saturday, the day after the resignation of the museum director.

In office since 2016, Hartwig Fischer, 60, resigned as director of the British Museum on Friday, under pressure since the announcement on August 16 of the disappearance of a series of pieces from the collections, some dating back to the 15th century BC. VS..

Asked by the BBC on Saturday, the museum’s chairman, former Conservative minister George Osborne, said he wasn’t sure how many items were missing, but “I’ll give an estimate of around 2,000”.

“We have started to find stolen parts which is a clearing in the storm,” he added.

The stolen objects are small unexposed pieces kept in the reserves of the museum, which does not have a complete inventory of its collections acquired over the centuries.

“Somebody with knowledge of what is not recorded has a big advantage,” Mr. Osborne said, saying that the museum “needs to accelerate the process already underway to establish a complete inventory”.

News of the thefts was a blow to the museum and “damaged the reputation of the British Museum”, according to Mr Osborne. “We believe we have been victims of thefts over a long period of time and frankly more could have been done to prevent them. »

“Was there at the time a conviction within the museum, at the highest level, that refused to believe that an insider was stealing objects, to believe that one of the staff members was doing this? Yes, it’s very possible,” he said.

The institution had indicated in mid-August that it had dismissed an employee while the London police said that they had questioned a man, without naming him, but had not launched any prosecution as such.