Last month, the Brazilian artist Ilê Sartuzi stole a historic coin from its display case at the British Museum in London, and shortly after dropped the coin in the musem’s donation box, the Art Newspaper reported Monday.
Sartuzi filmed the theft and the return, and is now including that footage, a seven-minute video titled Sleight of Hand, in his MFA thesis exhibition at Goldsmiths, University of London, on view through July 16.
The incident occurred on June 18 when Sartuzi stole the silver coin minted in 1645 in Newark, England from its display case in Room 68 during a demonstration overseen by a volunteer guide. He then replaced it with a replica. The artist carried the original coin downstairs and deposited it into a designated change donation box.
The “heist” took more than a year of planning and three of Sartuzi’s friends captured the incident with a handheld camera—first on June 17, during which time the artist was caught by a volunteer guide, and again the next day on June 18. To avoid being noticed after being caught, Sartuzi shaved his beard and successfully switched the coin using a quick diversion.
The historic coin is not registered in the museum’s database and is part of its handling collection, which has offered visitors the chance to touch objects under volunteer supervision since January 2000.
Sartuzi’s actions, according to him and his lawyer, do not violate museum policies against touching objects or their removal from the premises; they also do not fall under the Theft Act of 1968, they argued.
“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.”
Sartuzi told the Art Newspaper that his work emphasizes “the problem of universal museums”. Adding that the British Museum “is a foundational part of the colonial, imperialist system,” he noted that the coin he stole was the only one on display of British origin.
It also underscores a larger issue with more than half of the museum’s collection still uncatalogued.
This latest incident occurred as the museum continues to deal with issues of theft, including the recent recovery of 268 objects following the theft of some 1,500 artifacts, which resulted in the departure of museum director Hartwig Fischer.
