The British Museum announced it has decided to close some of its galleries after a recently fired contractor disabled several of the museum's systems.
“An IT contractor who was dismissed last week trespassed into the museum and shut down several of our systems,” the museum said in a statement on Friday. “Police attended and he was arrested at the scene.”
"We are working hard to get the museum back to being fully operational but with regret our temporary exhibitions have been closed today and will remain so over the weekend — ticket holders have been alerted and refunds offered.”
In 2023, a scandal embarrassed the museum when it was revealed that a former employee managed to steal and sell numerous items from the museum, leading the museum director to resign in accountability.
The British Museum is one of the largest and most well-known museums in the world, housing artifacts collected over the years by Britain from various countries they conquered. Today, some of these countries demand the return of the artifacts to their places of origin.
For instance, in 2023, the then UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a last-minute meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, despite the latter having already arrived in the United Kingdom.
The decision to cancel the meeting followed reports in Greek and British media that Mitsotakis intended to discuss the Parthenon sculptures, some of which were looted by the British in the 19th century, during their meeting.
In an interview with the BBC, Mitsotakis stated that the sculptures "would look better in the Acropolis Museum. It's not a matter of return; the sculptures belong to Greece and were stolen."