A former tech contractor at the British Museum reportedly shut down some of its IT systems, causing the museum to close some galleries and exhibitions.

First reported by The Register, the freelancer allegedly gained access to an unauthorized area of the British Museum last week and turned off some of its IT systems after being dismissed by the museum.

As a result, the museum was forced to shut down some of its galleries and exhibitions over the weekend. Operations have resumed as normal today, January 27.

A spokesperson for the museum told The Register: "An IT contractor who was dismissed last week trespassed into the museum and shut down several of our systems. Police attended, and he was arrested at the scene.

"We are working hard to get the museum back to being fully operational but with regret our temporary exhibitions have been closed today (January 25) and will remain so over the weekend – ticket holders have been alerted and refunds offered."

The British Museum told DCD that the systems allegedly impacted by the contractor did not include its ticketing system but are instead its "support systems." As this meant the museum could not safely open, it opted to turn off its ticketing system while the issue was resolved. The museum reiterated that this was a physical incident and not a cyber attack.

The Metropolitan Police told The Register that the incident occurred on January 23 and police were called at around 8:25pm with "reports that a man had entered the British Museum and caused damage to the museum's security and IT systems."

The Met added: "Police swiftly attended and arrested a man in his 50s at the scene on suspicion of burglary and criminal damage. He has been bailed pending further inquiries."

The British Museum is located in the Bloomsbury area of London and was founded in 1753. It has collections of historical artifacts from around the world and is home to the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Marbles, and the Younger Memnon bust of Ramesses II among other key exhibits. Its diverse collection has led to some criticism, with calls for cultural artifacts to be returned to their country of origin on numerous occasions.

The museum partnered with Microsoft in 2017, using Azure's data analysis capabilities to ensure that the information was located in the right places, times, and languages.

The museum selected Agilyx Group and Unit4 to migrate from an on-premise platform to a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service platform according to a 2024 case study. In addition to its in-person collection, the British Museum hosts an online collection with more than four and a half million objects.