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MUSEUM

British Museum director heads to Berlin

The head of London's British Museum will step down at the end of this year and is to work on a major new cultural project in Berlin, a statement released on Wednesday confirmed.

British Museum director heads to Berlin
British Museum director Neil MacGregor

Neil MacGregor, who has been in charge since 2002, will leave in December to work on part-time projects including advising German Culture Minister Monika Grütters on the development of the Humboldt Forum.

MacGregor organised a popular exhibition on German history last year at the British Museum, which is the most visited tourist attraction in Britain – and even drew a visit from Chancellor Angela Merkel.

It was also the subject of an acclaimed BBC radio series and an accompanying book.

The Humboldt Forum, a new museum due to open in 2019, is described by Grütters as "our most ambitious cultural project" and will be housed in a rebuilt former imperial palace in central Berlin.

"The Humboldt- Forum, drawing on the outstanding resources of the Berlin collections, can become a place where different narratives of world cultures can be explored and debated," MacGregor said.

Media reports suggest that MacGregor could eventually be a candidate to run it.

After leaving the British Museum, he will also work alongside the CSMVS Museum in Mumbai – India's most prestigious – and on a new series for BBC radio.

During his time at the British Museum, MacGregor defended its right to keep its most controversial artefacts, the Elgin Marbles.

The museum's loan of part of the Elgin Marbles to the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg last year drew an angry response from Greece, which wants the return of the sculptures which were once part of the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis in Athens.

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MUSEUM

German police arrest fugitive twin over Dresden museum heist

German police said Tuesday they have arrested one of two fugitive twin brothers from the so-called Remmo clan wanted over their suspected role in snatching priceless jewels from a museum in the city of Dresden.

German police arrest fugitive twin over Dresden museum heist
Archive photo from April 2019 shows the Jewellery Room of the Green Vault. Photo: DPA

The 21-year-old suspect was detained in Berlin on Monday evening over what local media have dubbed one of the biggest museum heists in modern history, a spokesman for the police in the eastern city of Dresden said.

The twins had eluded German authorities when they carried out raids last month and arrested three members of the Remmo clan, a family of Arab origin notorious for its ties to organised crime.

Police then named them as 21-year-old Abdul Majed Remmo and Mohammed Remmo.

All five suspects are accused of “serious gang robbery and two counts of arson,” Dresden prosecutors said.

Police did not immediately name the arrested twin. His brother remains on the run.

The robbers launched their brazen raid lasting eight minutes on the Green Vault museum in Dresden's Royal Palace on November 25th, 2019.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know about the Dresden museum heist

Having caused a partial power cut and broken in through a window, they snatched priceless 18th-century jewellery and other valuables from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong.

Items stolen included a sword whose hilt is encrusted with nine large and 770 smaller diamonds, and a shoulderpiece which contains the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond, Dresden's Royal Palace said.

The Remmos were previously implicated in another stunning museum robbery in the heart of Berlin in which a 100-kilogramme gold coin was stolen.

Investigators last year targeted the family with the seizure of 77 properties worth a total of €9.3 million, charging that they were purchased with the proceeds of various crimes, including a 2014 bank robbery.

READ ALSO: €1 million gold coin stolen from iconic Berlin museum

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