A man has been arrested over the theft of almost 300 rare bird skins from the Natural History Museum at Tring in Hertfordshire.

A Hertfordshire Police spokesman said a 22-year-old student from the US has been placed in police custody over the theft of the brightly-coloured priceless bird specimens, which took place in June 2009.

The theft is believed to have been the biggest robbery of its kind and the tropical bird skins would have been worth a significant amount on the black market.

At the time of the theft, Professor Richard Lane, Director of Science, Natural History Museum, said the items were “priceless” and part of the nation’s natural history collection that has been “painstakingly assembled” over the last 350 years.

He said it appears that the specimens were “deliberately targeted” during the break-in.

It is understood that most of the stuffed birds have been traced and will be returned back to the museum’s extensive collection.

The Natural History Museum at Tring looks after a total of 70 million specimens that are used as a resource of international importance in the development of scientific knowledge, from anatomy, ecology and art, to archaeology, taxonomy and evolution.

Its ornithological collections are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world. There are approaching 750,000 bird skins representing 95 per cent of known extant species.

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