The British Museum on Tuesday posted photos online of objects resembling some of the hundreds of pieces stolen from its collections, appealing to the public to help find them.
In recent weeks, it has been announced that "around 2000,<>" pieces have been stolen from the collections of the prestigious British cultural establishment in recent years, according to its president, George Osborne, sparking a major scandal that prompted museum director Hartwig Fisher to resign last summer.
The stolen pieces are small undisplayed items that were kept in the museum.
The British Museum says the "vast majority" were part of the Greek and Roman artifacts section of the site, including in particular jewellery, semi-precious stones and glassware, but on expert advice, the museum did not identify or describe them accurately.
To find them, the foundation posted photos online on Tuesday of similar pieces still in its collections, including a gold bracelet, an engraved ring and a necklace decorated with lion's head clips.
The museum asked anyone who "believes they own or have been in possession of British Museum objects, or who may have any useful information" in this area, to contact the foundation.
The museum said in a statement that so far "60 objects have been returned, and another 300 have been identified and are expected to be returned soon."
He also referred to the registration of stolen objects in the Lost Works of Art, an international database used by people working in the art world, collectors, insurance companies and even the police force.
The foundation said in mid-August it had fired one of its employees, while London police said it had questioned a man anonymously, but had not yet initiated any prosecution in the case.
Founded in 1753, the British Museum houses in its collections of 8 million pieces, the famous Rosetta Stone, which enabled the decipherment of the hieroglyphic language, and is considered one of the most attractive points of interest for visitors in the United Kingdom.
Egypt has previously demanded the return of the famous Rosetta Stone from the British Museum since December 2009, and it also submitted a previous request in 1925 to the Neo Museum in Berlin to restore the "head of Nefertiti", which is no less famous than the Rosetta Stone.
While colonizing nearly a quarter of the world's inhabited area, Britain took treasures and handicrafts and presented them to the British public to admire in museums, but now there is no justification for keeping these stolen items, critics and archaeologists say.