Over 1,700 items are missing from museums across England, according to information obtained through freedom of information requests. The missing items include a drawing of Queen Victoria and navigational equipment from aircraft. The requests were submitted to museums and galleries that receive public funding and cover missing artefacts from the past two decades.
The National Portrait Gallery, which reopened after a three-year refurbishment in 2023, has 45 “not located” items. These items are absent from the collection, but the gallery states that they are not lost or stolen. The Victoria and Albert Museum reported more than 180 missing artefacts, including paintings, false moustaches, and a mousetrap.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens are missing seven artefacts, including a 1933 protective charm. The Science Museum Group, which includes five museums across England, recorded the theft of two model steam trains in 2014 and has noted other missing items, including a 1960s model of a deep-sea observation chamber and a portrait of Joseph Marie Jacquard, who developed a programmable loom.
The Imperial War Museums are also missing over 550 objects, including a Saddam Hussein calendar and ship camouflage drawings. Museums have attributed the loss of items to data transfer errors, incorrect documentation, and human error, but some items may also have been stolen. All museums maintain that security protects their collections, and internal audits routinely locate missing items.
The Natural History Museum reported 23 lost or missing items from a collection of 80 million in the past two decades. These included fish, teeth, and frozen animal tissue. The museum spokesman emphasised that despite the loss, the security of the collection is taken very seriously, and researchers from around the world have access to help find solutions to the planetary emergency
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