Priceless national treasures stolen from the Bermuda Maritime Museum in Dockyard may surface on the Internet says Museum Executive Director Edward Harris.

The theft of the heritage items ? a gold nugget (circa 1621), a large round gold ingot (circa 1595) and a gold chain (circa 1621) ? took place on or before July 12 and was discovered by museum visitors who alerted staff to the missing exhibits from their display cases in the Treasury Room.

?There are a number of websites where you can post stolen items but it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to offload stolen heritage items because of the publicity capacity of the Internet,? Dr. Harris said.

?These items could be posted on the Internet and people around the world will be aware of the theft and the loss of the artefact. With some of these artefacts, their value is in their historical content and context.?

The large round gold ingot has minting stamps and these stamps give a historical date and context which provides validity to the historical value of the artefact. And the historical value of these items may far exceed its intrinsic value such as their weight in gold.

?The stamped gold ingot will very likely surface on the Internet, said Dr. Harris.

?The real problem is publicity, in order to get full value from a stolen item, you need to state its provenance ? the origin or place of origin ? and dealers require provenance documents.

?People are willing to buy stolen items and keep them hidden but they will not keep them hidden forever. We are hopeful that these artefacts, like the Tucker Cross (a religious relic made of gold and emeralds) will eventually resurface and return to Bermuda.?

Dr. Harris said he does not believe the thieves will attempt to melt the gold down as this would deplete their value.

The Bermuda Maritime Museum had already taken steps to review security before the theft on July 12 and has a master plan to refurbish all the buildings on the lower grounds.

The new exhibits and the missing artefacts were to be moved to a secure location.

?It is the nature of high value items in a museum that you can expect people will try to appropriate them so you do the best to secure them,? Dr. Harris said.

The Police are continuing their investigation into the case and are appealing for any witnesses or anyone with any information about this incident to contact the Somerset Criminal Investigation Unit on 234-1010 or the confidential Crimestoppers Hotline on 1-800-623-8477.