The director of the British Museum, one of London’s premier tourist attractions with thousands of precious artefacts on display including from India, has resigned from his post even as it emerged on Saturday that some of the 2,000 stolen artefacts have been recovered.

Hartwig Fischer issued his resignation announcement on Friday to say that it is now evident that the museum did not respond “comprehensively” to warnings around the feared thefts and that the responsibility ultimately rests with him. On Saturday, chair of the museum`s board of trustees George Osborne told a news channel that “we have already started to recover some of the stolen items”.