UK Museums and Galleries Vulnerable to Cyber-Attacks and Theft, MPs Warn

The Vulnerability of UK Museums and Galleries

Britain's museums and galleries are being left vulnerable to thefts and cyber-attacks that could put priceless collections at risk, MPs have warned. A report by the public accounts committee (PAC) said big security failures in recent years, including the theft of thousands of artefacts from the British Museum and a devastating cyber-attack on the British Library, had exposed serious weaknesses across the sector.

Recent Incidents Highlight Security Failures

The warning comes less than three years after the British Museum revealed that about 2,000 objects had been stolen, damaged or gone missing from its collections over a period of years, in a scandal that led to the resignation of its director, Hartwig Fischer. The same year, a ransomware attack on the British Library crippled its digital services for months and led to the theft of staff and user data.

The Financial Impact on Museums

The report found that although UK museums and galleries generated £563m in self-generated income in 2024-25 – a 53% real-terms increase compared with 2021-22 – visitor numbers had yet to recover fully to pre-pandemic levels and institutions continued to face rising staffing and energy costs. There was also a 16% real-terms reduction in government funding after emergency pandemic support came to an end.

The Need for Stronger Oversight

The committee said such incidents highlighted the need for stronger oversight of both the physical security of collections and museums' digital infrastructure. While the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had facilitated discussions about recent breaches, MPs said it had been unable to identify concrete actions taken across the sector as a result.

The Future of Museum Security

MPs called on the government to set out what measures museums and galleries had introduced to tackle cyber and physical security risks, including wider use of digital record-keeping systems that could help prevent items disappearing from collections unnoticed. The PAC also questioned whether the current funding model provided sufficient incentives for museums to become financially resilient.