Since it was established by the British Parliament in 1753 to house the collection of 71,000 artifacts bequeathed to the nation by physician Hans Sloane, London's British Museum has welcomed millions of visitors, including some of the most famous names in history, through its doors to marvel at its wonders. 自1753年英国议会为收藏医生汉斯-斯隆遗赠给国家的71,000件文物而建立以来，伦敦大英博物馆已接待了数百万参观者，其中包括一些历史上最著名的人物，他们都曾走进博物馆的大门，惊叹于博物馆的奇迹。 In 1765, the 9-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote a piece of music dedicated to the museum on Great Russell Street after a visit. Years later, Karl Marx, Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle became regular users of its famous reading room. 1765年，9岁的沃尔夫冈·阿玛迪斯·莫扎特在参观大罗素街的博物馆后，写下了一首献给博物馆的乐曲。多年后，卡尔·马克思、布拉姆·斯托克和阿瑟·柯南·道尔也成了博物馆著名阅览室的常客。 In 1972, the visit of the relics of Tutankhamen drew a record 1.8 million visitors to the museum. Then in 1980, it hosted a Viking exhibition. Currently, China's Hidden Century exhibition is being held at the museum to great acclaim. 1972年，参观图坦卡门遗物的游客达到创纪录的180万人次。1980年，博物馆举办了维京海盗展。目前，该博物馆正在举办的“中国隐秘世纪”展览广受好评。 But this summer, it is not who has been coming through the museum's doors that is being talked about, but it is what has been taken out of them, as a scandal over missing items has made hugely damaging international headlines. 但今年夏天，人们谈论的不是谁走进了博物馆的大门，而是什么从博物馆里被拿走了，因为一桩关于藏品丢失的丑闻成为了极具破坏性的国际头条新闻。 When the story first broke in mid-August, the BBC reported that a staff member had been sacked and there was a police investigation over items that were "missing, stolen or damaged", with museum director Hartwig Fischer calling it "a highly unusual incident". 英国广播公司（BBC）在8月中旬首次报道了这一事件，称一名工作人员已被解雇，警方正在对“丢失、被盗或损坏”的物品进行调查，博物馆馆长哈特维格·菲舍尔称这是“一起极不寻常的事件”。 But less than two weeks later, it was Fischer who was on his way out, with his deputy Jonathan Williams stepping back from duties, as the scandal and reputational damage to one of the world's most highly regarded historical institutions grew, with the revelation that there had been unheeded warnings over suspected thefts two years earlier. 但不到两周后，菲舍尔就辞职了，他的副手乔纳森·威廉姆斯也退居二线，因为这起丑闻和对这个世界上最受推崇的历史机构之一的声誉造成的损害越来越大。 About 2,000 treasures are thought to have been stolen, but recovery has begun for some of them, BBC cited British Museum chairman George Osborne as saying on Aug 26. 英国广播公司8月26日援引大英博物馆主席乔治·奥斯本的话说，大约2000件珍宝被认为失窃，但其中一些已经开始追回。 Alert ignored 警告被忽视 The items involved are dated from 15th century BC to 19th century AD, and had been kept primarily for academic and research purposes. 这些物品的年代从公元前15世纪到公元19世纪，主要用于学术和研究目的。 Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today program that not all of the items were "properly cataloged and registered". 奥斯本告诉英国广播公司四台的“今日”节目，并非所有物品都“进行了适当的编目和登记”。 The BBC reported that art dealer Ittai Gradel alerted the museum in February 2021 when he saw items that belonged to it for sale online, but he received a reply from Williams in July that year, saying "there was no suggestion of any wrongdoing". 英国广播公司报道称，艺术品经销商伊泰·格拉德尔在2021年2月看到属于博物馆的物品在网上出售时向博物馆发出了警告，但他在当年7月收到了威廉姆斯的回复，称“没有任何不当行为的迹象”。 Senior figures dismissed suggestions of theft as "wholly unfounded", and emails sent to Osborne said "all items are accounted for". But the truth was very different. 高层人士驳斥盗窃的说法“毫无根据”，发给奥斯本的电子邮件也称“所有物品都已清点”。但事实却大相径庭。 "It is evident that the British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have in response to the warnings in 2021, and to the problem that has now fully emerged … the responsibility for that failure must ultimately rest with the director," Fischer's resignation letter said. 费舍尔在辞职信中说：“很明显，大英博物馆没有对2021年的警告和现在已经完全显现的问题做出应有的全面回应......最终责任必须由馆长承担。” Though it is called the British Museum, the most frequently searched term on its website is "Egypt". Despite the location, many of its most famous pieces are from much further afield. 虽然名为大英博物馆，但其网站上最常被搜索的词却是“埃及”。尽管大英博物馆位于英国，但许多最著名的藏品却来自其他国家和地区。 For many years, questions have been asked — and not always satisfactorily answered — about how some of them ended up in British hands. 多年来，人们一直在追问其中一些藏品是如何落入英国人手中的，但答案并不总是令人满意。 Sloane, whose life's collection started the museum, was a highly respected medic, promoting inoculation against smallpox, and becoming president of both the College of Physicians and the Royal Society. But the museum's own biography of him acknowledges that he worked on slave plantations, and that his wife's family fortune, which helped fund his collection, also had links to slavery. 斯隆一生的收藏是博物馆的起点，他是一位备受尊敬的医生，提倡接种天花疫苗，并成为内科学院和皇家学会的主席。但博物馆自己为他撰写的传记承认，他曾在奴隶种植园工作过，他妻子的家族财富也与奴隶制有关，而这笔财富也为他的收藏提供了资金。 In addition to the contentious provenance of many of its exhibits, the security lapses exposed by the scandal have demolished the suggestion that the British Museum is a safer repository for priceless items of international cultural significance than their places of origin. 除了许多展品的来源备受争议之外，丑闻暴露出的安全漏洞也使人们不再认为大英博物馆是比其原产地更安全的具有国际文化意义的无价之宝的存放处。 One of the most high-profile examples of this is the long-running dispute with Greece over the marble friezes from the Parthenon in Athens, acquired by Thomas Elgin in the early part of the 1800s and subsequently sold to the museum. The other is the Benin bronzes, brought back by British soldiers from what is now southern Nigeria, in the late 19th century. 其中最著名的例子之一就是与希腊就雅典帕台农神庙大理石楣板的长期争端，托马斯·埃尔金在19世纪早期收购了这些大理石楣板，随后卖给了大英博物馆。另一件是19世纪末英国士兵从现在的尼日利亚南部带回的贝宁青铜器。 Member of Parliament Bell Ribeiro-Addy, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, told The Guardian that the recent scandal, and the fact that there is a specific law — the 1963 British Museum Act preventing the return of such objects — highlighted the "insulting ridiculousness" of the situation. 非洲裔人赔偿问题跨党派议会小组主席、议员贝尔·里贝罗·阿迪告诉《卫报》，最近的丑闻，以及有专门法律（1963年《大英博物馆法》）阻止归还此类文物的事实，表明这种情况“荒唐透顶”。 Unfolding scandal 不断发展的丑闻 "One of the most insulting reasons that they've given is that the other countries that these items belong to would either not be able to take care of them or they are likely to be stolen," she said. "But you've got people in this country putting them on eBay." 她表示：“他们给出的一个最侮辱人的理由是，这些物品所属的其他国家要么没有能力处理这些物品，要么这些物品很可能被盗。”她说：“但这个国家的人却把它们放到了eBay上。” Unsurprisingly, the Greek government has been watching the unfolding of the scandal closely, saying that it "reinforces the permanent and just demand of our country for the definitive return" of the marbles. 不出所料，希腊政府一直在密切关注着这起丑闻的发展，并表示这“坚定了我国对最终归还大理石的永久而公正的要求。” In an interview with newspaper To Vima, Greek Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni said the scandal brought into question the fundamental credibility of the British Museum. 希腊文化部长莉娜·门多尼在接受《To Vima》报采访时说，丑闻使大英博物馆的基本信誉受到质疑。 "The loss, theft, deterioration of objects from a museum's collections is an extremely serious and particularly sad event," she said. "In fact, when this happens from within, beyond any moral and criminal responsibility, a major question arises regarding the credibility of the museum organization itself … the Ministry of Culture is following the development of the issue with great attention." 她表示：“博物馆藏品的丢失、失窃和变质是一件极其严重和特别令人痛心的事情。事实上，当这种情况从内部发生时，
