The museum, one of the most visited in the world, has been dealing with the aftermath of thefts which highlighted internal failings and led to the exit of its director.

“We have taken steps to improve security and are now confident that a theft of this kind can never happen again,” the British Museum’s interim director, Mark Jones, said in a statement.

“But we cannot and must not assume that the security of the collection, in a wider sense, can be achieved simply by locking everything away. It is my belief that the single most important response to the thefts is to increase access.”

The announcement came as the museum’s Chair George Osborne was being questioned by parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport committee on how the thefts had happened and what steps were being taken to make sure they could not happen again.

The museum sacked a member of staff over the incident, which is also being investigated by London’s Metropolitan Police.

The proposed digitisation project would take 5 years, with 2.4 million records to upload or upgrade. Its collection totals at least 8 million objects according to the museum’s website.

(Reporting by Muvija M; editing by William James)