This is the Guardian.

Today, how did precious artifacts from the British Museum end up on eBay?

It's a gorgeously sunny afternoon in central London.

I've come to Bloomsbury standing outside the British Museum

and this is a vast temple that I'm looking at built in Victorian times

but to a classical Greek style with more than 40 of these huge stone columns running along its front edge.

And the collections it houses span two million years of human history.

It tells also the history of the British Empire

where treasures from every continent were found, bought or stolen and now they're housed here for the nation.

But in the last few weeks, it's come to light that thousands of precious items have been stolen from the collection.

It's extremely embarrassing. This is the most preeminent museums in the world having a security issue.

I mean, it's the standard for a secure museum.

A curator's been sacked.

The director of the museum's resigned and an investigation's been launched to find out how these things could have been taken right from under their noses.

This isn't a problem that's unique to the British Museum.

It's one that all museums are contending with because it turns out that stealing artifacts is surprisingly simple

and getting them back can prove much harder.

From the Guardian, I'm Hannah Moore.

Today in focus, can we trust British museums to look after our history?

David Batty, you're a senior reporter for the Guardian and you also specialise in writing about visual art and cultural politics.

We've only heard recently that valuable items have been going missing from the British Museum.

But when did people first raise concerns about this?

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