The former chancellor, who's now chairman of the museum’s trustees, mentioned “groupthink” might have prevented the establishment’s management from believing that treasures had been taken.

Director Hartwig Fischer has resigned and his deputy Jonathan Williams has stepped again within the wake of the scandal, which Mr Osborne conceded had broken the British Museum’s repute.

An unnamed member of workers suspected of involvement has been sacked and the museum mentioned it's taking authorized motion, whereas a police investigation is beneath method.

We imagine we’ve been the sufferer of thefts over an extended time period and, frankly, extra may have been carried out to stop them

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Mr Osborne advised BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday: “We have started to recover some of the stolen items, which is a silver lining to a dark cloud.”

The London establishment is working with the artwork loss register and members of the antiquarian group who're serving to to return a number of the lacking gadgets, he mentioned, including that safety has been stepped up round museum storerooms.

The artefacts stolen had been “small items of jewellery, gems, bits of gold that were not on public display”.

The former Conservative minister admitted the museum didn't have a whole catalogue of the whole lot in its assortment amassed over a number of hundred years.

“Someone with knowledge of what’s not registered has a big advantage in removing some of those items,” he mentioned.

“Obviously, a clear outcome from what has happened is that the British Museum has to accelerate the process that was already under way of getting a complete register of the items in our collection.”

Mr Osborne continued: “It’s certainly been damaging to the British Museum’s reputation. I think that’s sort of stating the obvious and that’s why I’m apologising on behalf of the museum.

“We believe we’ve been the victim of thefts over a long period of time and, frankly, more could have been done to prevent them.”

The museum’s chairman vowed that “it is a mess that we are going to clear up”.

He mentioned an unbiased overview will look into “how come the museum missed some of the signals that could have been picked up”, not least when the museum was alerted by an antiquities seller to gadgets being bought on eBay in 2021.

While he denied there had been a “deliberate cover-up”, Mr Osborne mentioned: “Was there some potential groupthink in the museum at the time, at the very top of the museum, that just couldn’t believe that an insider was stealing things, couldn’t believe that one of the members of staff were doing this? Yes, that’s very possible.”

Antiquities seller Ittai Gradel beforehand advised the PA news company that claims he had withheld data from the establishment had been an “outright lie”.

It is known that the artefacts had been taken earlier than 2023 and over a “significant” time period.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Thursday {that a} man had been interviewed in reference to the alleged thefts.

The pressure mentioned no arrests had been made and it might proceed to work “closely” with the British Museum as inquiries proceed.