Museum staff ‘devastated’ after drawings worth £500,000 stolen and destroyed

Museum staff are “devastated” after drawings worth £500,000 were stolen and destroyed, the director has said.

On Tuesday, Police Scotland said that at around 11.30pm on November 19 a silver Ford Transit was stolen from Heron Square in Livingston, which was later found burnt out with parts stripped.

Inside the vehicle were 1,742 Second World War-era technical drawings that belonged to the Royal Engineers Museum, based in Kent.

The drawings were brought to Scotland to be digitised by a third-party company.

The pieces included a collection relating to the design and construction of the D-Day Mulberry harbours, railways and bridging.

Museum director Rebecca Nash is hopeful some items may have escaped destruction, and said the museum was told it appears to have been a “random act of criminality”.

She said: “We were notified of the loss on November 20 and have since been working closely with Scottish police to ascertain the full details of the incident.

“Police enquiries are still ongoing and we would of course welcome any information that may be of help in finding the perpetrators.

“We would also be extremely pleased to recover any of the items should they have escaped destruction.

“We understand that thankfully no members of public or company staff were injured in the incident.”

She added: “We are also assured that this appears to have been a random act of criminality with no connection to the museum or its collection.

“The security and care of our historic collection remain paramount to our responsibilities as a charity and museum.

“The staff at the museum are devastated by the loss of this part of our archive.

“We continue to work on what remains a significant wartime archive and redouble our efforts to make our Mulberry harbour collection publicly accessible through our exhibitions, website and research services.”

Inquiries found that a man wearing a face covering was seen getting in to the vehicle and driving eastbound on the A89 towards Newbridge, Ratho, shortly after 11.30pm on Wednesday November 19.

Constable Teri McEwan said: “We’re conducting extensive inquiries into this incident and officers are working their way through CCTV and visiting nearby properties.

“I am now asking anyone with information, or anyone who saw someone acting suspiciously in the area around the time, to get in touch with us.

“If you have private CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage, please also review this and bring anything which may assist the investigation to our attention.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Police Scotland on 101 quoting reference CR/0489211/25, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.