A suspect has been charged in the wake of what British authorities described as a “high-value burglary” at the Bristol Museum in the UK last September.
As reported by the BBC, “Dean Hall, 41, from Redcliffe, Bristol, has been charged with handling stolen goods. He was given unconditional bail and he is next due at Bristol Crown Court on 17 August.”
The police said the investigation into the burglary—which involved more than 600 objects from the Bristol Museum’s British Empire and Commonwealth Collection, including military badges, pins from the East India Company, and carved Buddha statues—remains ongoing.
This past December, the police appealed to the public in search of information related to four suspects seen on security-camera footage during the night of the crime. The New York Times reported then that security had been tightened at the Bristol Museum, which had been breached just a month before the brazen theft of treasures at the Louvre in Paris in October.
The Bristol Museum’s website states that the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection “documents the links between Britain and countries in the British Empire from the late 19th century to recent times.” Among its holdings are household belongings, souvenirs, and photographs and papers of British people who lived and worked in the colonies—all of which “give an insight into the workings of empire and the lives of the people who made it function.”
