The FBI’s Art Crime Team was established in 2004 in response to the plundering of Baghdad museums after the US invasion of Iraq — it is still institutions like these that are most at risk from theft. Even the august British Museum is not immune: in 2023, the theft of up to 2,000 objects from the collection was discovered. Many had been sold on eBay. Such is the size of the BM’s collection (only about 1 per cent of it is on show at any one time) that the thefts had been going on for years before being discovered. And on Sunday, thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris, escaping on high-powered scooters with several pieces of royal jewellery.