The Danish antiques dealer Ittai Gradel has died of cancer at the age of 61. It was Gradal who, in 2021, first alerted the British Museum to the possibility that gems from its collection were being sold on eBay. He wrote to first museum’s deputy director (Jonathan Williams), then its director (Hartwig Fischer) and, finally, its chair of Trustees (George Osborne). It was only after the British Museum issued a press release revealing the thefts in August 2023 – later revealed to be in the region of some 2,000 items – that Gradel went public, critical of what he regarded as an internal cover-up and failings of the museum’s management. The Metropolitan Police’s investigation is ongoing.
Before his death in a hospice in Denmark, the British Museum awarded Gradel a medal for what its current director, Nicholas Cullinan, called his ‘very significant contribution’. Gradel told the BBC’s culture correspondent, Katie Razzall – with whom he made a podcast and a television programme – that the years he spent as a dealer in gems, from 2013–20 were ’the happiest of my life’.
In 2024, Ittai Gradel was Apollo’s Personality of the Year.
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