The BBC is reporting that the items belong to eight lenders and were under the care of the British and Empire Commonwealth Museum in Bristol. The museum's trustees have declined to say what the items are other than they do not belong to charities. BBC's Inside Out West claims that one item lent to the museum, a 19th Century painting, was sold in 2008 without the owner's knowledge. The museum closed in the same year and a planned move to London was cancelled because of the credit crunch. Bristol City Council is now in charge of the museum's exhibits and said it would display some of them alongside its other collections. The council told the BBC it could not say how many items were missing as it did not have a full audit allowing it to compare the collection now with what was there before it took it over. In tonight's Inside Out West on BBC One, one private owner is interviewed who lent a family artefact to the museum – only for it to be sold. He lent a painting of a 19th century trading ship, the Dunira – which was then sold at auction for more than �61,000. The painting belonged to the Caldecote family. Lord Caldecote, said: "In the process of settling up my parents' estate, we discovered that this picture had been lent to the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. I contacted the Museum, and asked could we have the painting back and unfortunately, they said no, this painting was given to the museum. "We subsequently discovered it had been sold by Christies on behalf of the Museum. And I said no, this is not right because we have a document here that clearly shows it was loaned to the museum, not given… "I suppose the Museum is to blame, because they didn't have a proper stock check and maybe somebody in the Museum went, shall we say, off-piste rather than follow all the correct procedures." Dr Katherine Prior, Former Senior Researcher at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum said:"I helped persuade people to give valuable family collections to the museum, and I was just aghast that we had betrayed our donors in this way and also the people who had backed us financially and had put their neck on the line to support us politically." The Government of Madeira bought the painting; the island is pictured in the background. They told the BBC they didn't know about the connection to the Museum or the Caldecotes. The auction house Christies said all parties were discussing a settlement. The company accounts state that the Museum Director, Gareth Griffiths, had undertaken a number of "unauthorised transactions". He was dismissed in February 2011 and Avon and Somerset Police called in a month later; no one was arrested or charged. In 2010, The Metropolitan Police investigated allegations that several items from the Museum were being sold by a London dealer, they concluded this was a civil matter. The Chair of the Trustees, Sir Neil Cossons, told BBC Inside Out West: "These are items that went from our possession without the knowledge or the authority of the Trustees, and a large part of the time the Trustees have been spending since our Director was dismissed have been trying to get to the bottom of those issues. If I come back to the Dunira picture, irrespective of where the proceeds from that sale went, that is an action which is unconscionable for the Director or for that matter, anybody else, to engage in. "I don't believe the trustees are to blame for having their eye off the ball. Because the role of trustees in a museum like this is to oversee strategy and broad policy and in that sense I think they have been both responsible and conscientious. "The difficulty is that trustees are not generally speaking in the day-to-day management and operation of the enterprise for which they are trustees. And in our case we delegated to a responsible, paid director with some staff and all the indications were that this was a professional doing a professional job." The Trustees are aware of 144 unaccounted for items belonging to eight lenders, but it may never be known exactly what was sold or disposed of legitimately as the whole collection had never been audited. The objects that are left have now been audited and some will eventually be put on display in by Bristol City Council in their museums. Gareth Griffiths said last year that any objects were disposed of with the knowledge and agreement of Trustees and with the receipts fully audited. He said that any suggestion he profited from the disposal of artefacts would be vigorously defended. He told BBC Inside Out West that financial pressures had increased over many years and questioned whether the Museum Trust had met its responsibilities. He said the Trust's viability and fundraising had to be examined and claimed the Trust had ceased to provide a public benefit when the focus changed to running an events venue.
Emily Koch - Emily is a journalist living in Bristol, where she works as a digital publisher for Northcliffe Digital. She writes for ThisisBristol and was previously a senior reporter on The Post.
Source: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Items-lent-Bristol-museum-missing/story-17547063-detail/story.html
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