THEFT FROM THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM’S BIRD COLLECTION - WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Abstract

During the past 100 years, the Natural History Museum has suffered three major specimen thefts from its bird research collections: the removal over many years and relabeling of specimens by Richard MEINERTZHAgEN during the early and mid 20th century, the major egg theft conducted by Mervyn SHoRTHoUSE during the 1970s and the break-in and removal of just under 300 bird skins by Edwin RIST in 2009. These thefts were carried out in greatly varying manners and with widely differing apparent motivations. This paper explores these episodes, with the aim of providing museum bird curators with information useful for assessing and addressing the risks to their own collections.