Would he have cared about such material things ?
Wasn't it the relatives who were more bothered about the valuables when JB began selling them to pay towards death duties ?
Why did JB hand the keys over to AE knowing that there were valuables inside to flog ? He literally gave THEM carte blanche to do as THEY liked.
A) The initial idea didn't float his boat.
B) I'd be willing to bet -and IF you could bring yourself to a moment of real truthfulness, you'd probably agree- that not one POUND, of what he received from those things he sold, found it's way to paying death duties. You can bet your life that once the cash was in his hands all pretense at paying death duties went out the window.
C) ANY decent person would have got the family in and told them what his plans were. He didn't need to like any of them more than they liked him. Courtesy -which he'd surely have learned both at school and at home- suggests he could have asked them first if there was anything they'd like as mementos.
D) Are you suggesting they were going to steal items? Wasn't it ALL, at that point -including the stuff Jeremy took and sold- owned by the estate and subject to probate?