Last month, Brazilian artist Ilê Sartuzi stole a historic silver coin from London’s British Museum, replacing the coin with a replica and dropping the original into the museum’s donation box.
According to The Art Newspaper, who broke the story on Monday (15 July), Sartuzi filmed the theft to create a seven-minute video entitled 'Sleight of Hand' for his MFA thesis exhibition at Goldsmiths, University of London.
The brief heist of the 17th-century coin took over a year of planning, and more than one attempt – Sartuzi failed to steal the coin on 17 June, when he was caught by a volunteer guide, but successfully completed the theft the next day.
Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Sartuzi said the project highlights “the problem of universal museums,” noting that the British Museum “is a foundational part of the colonial, imperialist system”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the British Museum – which is dealing with broader issues of theft, following last year's revelation that approximately 2,000 items had gone missing – took a rather different view.
“This is a disappointing and derivative act that abuses a volunteer-led service aimed at giving visitors the opportunity to handle real items and engage with history,” a spokesperson for the British Museum said in a statement. “Services like this rely on a basic level of human decency and trust, and it would be a shame to have to review the provision of these services due to actions like this.”
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