Overview
- A forthcoming book by historian Barnaby Phillips unearthed the scale of the thefts in the museum’s archives, reviving a decades-old case.
- Nigel Peverett was caught in April 1992 leaving with 35 prints worth about £5,000, with police later finding 169 more at his Kent home.
- Peverett admitted stealing roughly 150 additional prints, received a suspended sentence, and had scraped off museum identifiers before selling through dealers, including at Portobello Road.
- Trustee minutes recorded concerns that losses exceeded the 300 confessed prints, with the museum recovering 55 by late 1992 while many remain untraced.
- The museum says safeguards have since been strengthened and it plans full collection digitisation within five years, as separate recovery efforts continue alongside a civil suit against ex-curator Peter John Higgs, who denies wrongdoing.