Thieves have broken into the Barbados’ parliament and have stolen several historical artefacts including the suit jacket then Prime Minister Errol Barrow wore at independence ceremonies in 1966 but the trouble is no one has a clue when these items were carted away.
Police and parliamentary officials say the burglary was discovered this week during a tour by school students of the building’s west wing where artefacts in the parliamentary museum and the national heroes gallery are usually stored.
The problem is that the building had been condemned as unfit for use at the time so it had been basically left neglected, meaning that detectives are unsure whether the items were carted away a week ago or way back in 2020 when it was deemed unfit for use until repairs the Nation newspaper reported this week.
Other items that are no longer in the building include shoes worn by Barrow, Barbados’ first prime minister and the man who led them to independence back in November 1966. Art work and a musket gun belonging to Barrow are also missing. Other items listed as belonging to late Prime Minister Tom Adams and his father Sir Grantley Adams have also disappeared and no one knows when.
The items had been on display in two separate glass cases that staff and police discovered had been shattered. Parliamentary Clerk Pedro Eastmond said the investigations are continuing but for now “I am getting all the facts to give a report to the speaker. Until that is done I prefer not to make any comment.”
Officials are now arguing that the items should have been returned to the national museum for safekeeping and public display once that area of the parliamentary building had been condemned. Officials think that vagrants who frequent the area on Broad Street might be the ones to blame. If this is the case, there can be little hope for retrieving these valuable and historical artefacts.
“This is a real shame. The west wing has literally been abandoned. It is the building where the opposition office was housed and I understand it is in a deplorable state. It is a shame that you can have the artefacts of former prime ministers and our national heroes stolen from parliament which is supposed to be one of the most secure places in Barbados,” said General Secretary of the opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP), Steve Blackett.
Blackett said that the situation is worsened by the fact that the Labor Party (BLP) had won all 30 parliamentary seats in general elections last year. “It speaks to the total abandonment and worse yet they have not paid attention to that section because there is no leader of the opposition,” Blackett said.
