British Museum Director Hartwig Fischer has said he would resign after admitting to failings in his investigation of the theft of museum items including from the Greek collection.
He has admitted that he did not take warning of the theft seriously enough.
The museum was alerted more than two years ago to the possible theft or disappearance of valuable artefacts when an art historian became suspicious about objects for sale online.
Fischer announced his resignation on Friday as investigators figure out what happened to hundreds of missing items, including gold jewellery, semi-precious gems and antiquities dating to the 15th century BC.
Fischer, a German art historian who had led the museum since 2016, said that there could have been a better response to the warnings that an employee may have been stealing items and the failings “must ultimately” rest with him.
The British Museum employee sacked after the disappearance of precious objects has been named as a senior curator who had worked at the institution for 30 years.
Peter Higgs was allegedly dismissed earlier this year after the museum realised that gold jewellery, semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century AD were missing, stolen or damaged.
Higgs, 56, was the museum’s curator of Greek collections, Greek sculpture and the Hellenistic period until he was sacked.