Ittai Gradel: Antiquities dealer who exposed British Museum thefts dies aged 61

Dr Ittai Gradel, the academic turned antiquities dealer who exposed the theft of many hundreds of artefacts from the British Museum, has died of cancer, aged 61. In his final days he received a rarely-presented medal from the museum in recognition of what its director called his "very significant contribution". A police investigation is still ongoing more than three years after the British Museum finally reported the thefts to Scotland Yard, following pressure from Gradel. Before his death in a Danish hospice, he told me, with his typical understatement, that it was "a bit annoying" he wouldn't live to see the resolution of the case. He had tried to persuade the museum to investigate back in 2021 when he first suspected that gems from the museum's collection were being sold off on eBay, sometimes for just a few pounds a piece, but was stonewalled by previous management. In 2023, after it did its own investigation, the museum announced that 2,000 items from its collection were stolen, missing or damaged. The story made headlines around the world. After Gradel's earlier warnings became public, the museum's director, Hartwig Fischer, resigned, admitting it was "evident that the Britis