Everything about The British Museum totally explained
The
British Museum is a
museum of human history and culture in
London. Its collections, which number more than 13 million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present.
The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist
Sir Hans Sloane. The museum first opened to the public on
15 January 1759 in
Montagu House in
Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Its expansion over the following two and a half centuries has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the
British Museum of Natural History in
South Kensington in 1887. Until 1997, when the current
British Library building opened to the public, the British Museum was unique in that it housed both a national museum of
antiquities and a
national library in the same building. Since 2001 the
director of the Museum has been
Neil MacGregor.
As with all other national museums and art galleries in
Britain, the Museum charges no admission fee, although charges are levied for some temporary special exhibitions.
History
Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum
Though principally a museum of cultural art objects and
antiquities today, the British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". Its foundations lie in the will of the physician and naturalist
Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). During the course of his lifetime Sloane gathered an enviable
collection of curiosities and whilst not wishing to see his collection broken up after death, he bequeathed it to
King George II, for the nation, for the princely sum of £20,000.
At that time, Sloane’s collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000
manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants,
prints and drawings including those by
Albrecht Dürer and antiquities from
Egypt,
Greece,
Rome, the
Ancient Near and
Far East and the
Americas.
Foundation (1753)
On
7 June 1753 King George II gave his formal assent to the
Act of Parliament which established the British Museum.
The Foundation Act, added two other libraries to the Sloane collection. The
Cottonian Library, assembled by
Sir Robert Cotton, dated back to
Elizabethan times and the
Harleian library, the collection of the
Earls of Oxford. They were joined in 1757 by the Royal Library, assembled by various
British monarchs. Together these four "foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the
Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of
Beowulf.
The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum - national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, whilst including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the
Cotton and
Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and
antiquarian element and meant that the British Museum now became both national museum and library.
Cabinet of curiosities (1753-78)
The body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion,
Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the
Montagu family for £20,000. The Trustees rejected Buckingham House, on the site now occupied by
Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost and the unsuitability of its location.
With the acquisition of Montagu House the first exhibition galleries and
reading room for scholars opened on
15 January 1759. In 1757
King George II gave the
Old Royal Library and with it the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring that the Museum's library would expand indefinitely. The predominance of natural history, books and manuscripts began to lessen when in 1772 the Museum acquired its first antiquities of note;
Sir William Hamilton's collection of
Greek vases. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several further gifts, including the
Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts and
David Garrick's library of 1,000 printed plays, but yet contained few ancient
relics recognisable to visitors of the modern museum.
Indolence and energy (1778-1800)
From 1778 a display of objects from the
South Seas brought back from the round-the-world voyages of Captain
James Cook and the travels of other explorers fascinated visitors with a glimpse of previously unknown lands. The bequest of a collection of books, engraved gems, coins, prints and drawings by
Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode in 1800 did much to raise the Museum's reputation however Montagu House became increasingly crowded and decrepit and it was apparent that it would be unable to cope with further expansion.
The museum’s first notable addition towards its collection of antiquities, since its foundation, was by
Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), British Ambassador to
Naples, who sold his collection of Greek and Roman artefacts to the museum in 1784 together with a number of other antiquities and natural history specimens. A list of donations to the Museum, dated
31 January 1784 refers to the Hamilton bequest of a "Colossal Foot of an
Apollo in Marble". It was one of two antiquities of Hamilton's collection drawn for him by Francesco Progenie, a pupil of Pietro Fabris, who also contributed a number of drawings of Mount Vesuvius sent by Hamilton to the
Royal Society in
London.
Growth and change (1800-25)
In the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. After the defeat of the in the
Battle of the Nile, in 1801, the British Museum acquired more Egyptian sculpture and in 1802
King George III presented the
Rosetta Stone - key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs. Gifts and purchases from
Henry Salt, British
Consul General in Egypt, beginning with the
Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, laid the foundations of the collection of Egyptian Monumental Sculpture. Many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the
Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman Sculpture, in 1805. In 1806,
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803 removed the large collection of marble sculptures from the
Parthenon, on the
Acropolis in
Athens and transferred them to Britain. In 1816 these masterpieces of western art, were acquired by The British Museum by Act of Parliament and deposited in the museum thereafter. The collections were supplemented by the
Bassae frieze from
Phigaleia,
Greece in 1815. The Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of
Assyrian and
Babylonian antiquities from the widow of
Claudius James Rich.
In 1802 a Buildings Committee was set up to plan for expansion of the museum, and further highlighted by the donation in 1822 of the
King's Library, personal library of
King George III's, comprising 65,000 volumes, 19,000
pamphlets, maps, charts and
topographical drawing. The
neoclassical architect,
Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an eastern extension to the Museum "... for the reception of the
Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it ..." and put forward plans for today's quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old
Montagu House was demolished and work on the
King's Library Gallery began in 1823. The extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. However, following the founding of the
National Gallery, London in 1824, the proposed Picture Gallery was no longer needed, and the space on the upper floor was given over to the
Natural History collections.
The largest building site in Europe (1825-50)
The Museum became a construction site as
Sir Robert Smirke's grand
neo-classical building gradually arose. The
King's Library, on the ground floor of the East Wing, was handed over in 1827, and was described as one of the finest rooms in
London although it wasn't fully open to the general public until 1857, however, special openings were arranged during
The Great Exhibition of 1851. In spite of dirt and disruption the collections grew, outpacing the new building.
Archaeological excavations
In 1840 the Museum became involved in its first overseas excavations, Charles Fellows's expedition to Xanthos, in Asia Minor, whence came remains of the tombs of the rulers of ancient Lykia, among them the Nereid and Payava monuments. In 1857 Charles Newton was to discover the 4th-century BC Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In the 1840s and 1850s the Museum supported excavations in Assyria by A.H. Layard and others at sites such as Nimrud and Nineveh. Of particular interest to curators was the eventual discovery of Ashurbanipal's great library of cuneiform tablets, which helped to make the Museum a focus for Assyrian studies.
Sir Thomas Grenville (1755–1846) was a Trustee of The British Museum from 1830 assembled a fine library of 20,240 volumes, which he left to the Museum in his will. The books arrived in January 1847 in twenty-one horse-drawn vans. The only vacant space for this large library was a room originally intended for manuscripts, between the Front Entrance Hall and the Manuscript Saloon. The books remained here until the British Library moved to St Pancras in 1998.
Collecting from the wider world (1850-75)
The opening of the forecourt in 1852 marked the completion of
Robert Smirke's 1823 plan, but already adjustments were having to be made to cope with the unforeseen growth of the collections. Infill galleries were constructed for
Assyrian sculptures and
Sydney Smirke's
Round Reading Room, with space for a million books, opened in 1857. Because of continued pressure on space the decision was taken to move natural history to a new building in
South Kensington, which would later become the
British Museum of Natural History.
Roughly contemporary with the construction of the new building was the career of a man sometimes called the "second founder" of the British Museum, the Italian librarian
Anthony Panizzi. Under his supervision, the British Museum Library (now the
British Library) quintupled in size and became a well-organised institution worthy of being called a national library. The quadrangle at the centre of Smirke's design proved to be a waste of valuable space and was filled at Panizzi's request by a circular Reading Room of cast iron, designed by Smirke's brother, Sydney Smirke.
Until the mid 19th century the Museum's collections were relatively circumscribed but, in 1851, with the appointment to the staff of
Augustus Wollaston Franks to curate the collections, the Museum began for the first time to collect British and European medieval antiquities,
prehistory, branching out into Asia and diversifying its holdings of
ethnography. Overseas excavations continued and
John Turtle Wood discovered the remains of the 4th century BC
Temple of Artemis at
Ephesos, another
Wonder of the Ancient World.
Scholarship and legacies (1875-1900)
The natural history collections were an integral part of the British Museum until their removal to the new British Museum of Natural History, now the
Natural History Museum, in 1887. With the departure and the completion of the new White Wing (fronting Montague Street) in 1884, more space was available for antiquities and
ethnography and the library could further expand. This was a time of innovation as electric lighting was introduced in the Reading Room and exhibition galleries.
In 1882 the Museum was involved in the establishment of the independent
Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) the first British body to carry out research in Egypt. A bequest from Miss Emma Turner in 1892 financed excavations in Cyprus. In 1897 the death of the great collector and curator,
A.W. Franks, was followed by an immense bequest of 3,300
finger rings, 153 drinking vessels, 512 pieces of continental porcelain, 1,500
netsuke, 850
inro, over 30,000
bookplates and miscellaneous items of jewellery and plate, among them the
Oxus Treasure.
In 1898
Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed the glittering contents from his New Smoking Room at
Waddesdon Manor. This consisted of almost 300 pieces of
objets d'art et de vertu which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass and
maiolica, in the tradition of a
schatzkammer or treasure houses such as those formed by the
Renaissance princes of Europe. Baron Ferdinand's will was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void, the collection should be, However, in August 1939, due to the imminence of war and the likelihood of air-raids the Parthenon Sculptures along with Museum's most valued collections were dispersed to secure basements,
country houses,
Aldwych tube station, the
National Library of Wales and a quarry. The evacuation was timely, for in 1940 the Duveen Gallery was severely damaged by bombing. The Museum continued to collect from all countries and all centuries: among the most spectacular additions were the 2,600 BC
Mesopotamian treasure from
Ur, discovered during
Leonard Woolley's 1922–34 excavations. Gold, silver and
garnet grave goods from the
Anglo-Saxon ship burial at
Sutton Hoo (1939) and late Roman silver tableware from
Mildenhall,
Suffolk (1946). The immediate
post-war years were taken up with the return of the collections from protection and the restoration of the museum after the
blitz. Work also began on restoring the damaged Duveen Gallery.
A new public face (1950-75)
In 1953 the Museum celebrated its
bicentenary. Many changes followed: the first full time in house designer and publications officer were appointed in 1964, A Friends organisation was set up in 1968, an Education Service established in 1970 and publishing house in 1973. In 1963 a new Act of Parliament introduced administrative reforms. It became easier to lend objects, the
constitution of the
Board of Trustees changed and the
Natural History Museum became fully independent. By 1959 the Coins and Medals office suite, completely destroyed during the war, was rebuilt and re-opened, attention turned towards the gallery work with new tastes in design leading to the remodelling of
Robert Smirke's Classical and Near Eastern galleries. In 1962 the Duveen Gallery was finally restored and the Parthenon Sculptures were moved back into it, once again at the heart of the museum.
By the 1970s the Museum was again expanding. More services for the public were introduced; visitor numbers soared, with the temporary exhibition "Treasures of
Tutankhamun" in 1972, attracting 1,694,117 visitors, the most successful in British history. In the same year the Act of Parliament establishing the British Library was passed, separating the collection of
manuscripts and printed books from the British Museum. This left the Museum with antiquities; coins, medals and paper money; prints & drawings; and
ethnography. A pressing problem was finding space for additions to the library which now required an extra 1 1/4 miles of shelving each year. The Government suggested a site at
St Pancras for the new British Library but the books didn't leave the museum until 1997.
The Great Court emerges (1975-2000)
The departure of the British Library to a new site at
St Pancras, finally achieved in 1998, provided the space needed for the books. It also created the opportunity to redevelop the vacant space in
Robert Smirke's 19th-century central quadrangle into the
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court – the largest covered square in Europe – which opened in 2000.
The ethnography collections, which had been housed in the short-lived
Museum of Mankind at 6 Burlington Gardens from 1970, were returned to new purpose-built galleries.
The Museum again readjusted its collecting policies as interest in "modern" objects: prints, drawings, medals and the decorative arts reawakened. Ethnographical fieldwork was carried out in places as diverse as
New Guinea,
Madagascar,
Romania,
Guatemala and
Indonesia and there were excavations in the
Near East, Egypt, Sudan and the UK. The
Weston Gallery of Roman Britain, opened in 1997, displayed a number of recently discovered
hoards which demonstrated the richness of what had been considered an unimportant part of the Roman Empire. The Museum turned increasingly towards private funds for buildings, acquisitions and other purposes.
The Museum today
The Museum was founded 250 years ago as an encyclopædia of nature and of art. Today it no longer houses collections of
natural history, and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of the independent British Library. The Museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern. The original 1753 collection has grown to over thirteen million objects at the British Museum, 70 million at the
Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library.
The
Round Reading Room, which was designed by the architect
Sydney Smirke, opened in 1857. For almost 150 years researchers came here to consult the Museum's vast library. The Reading Room closed in 1997 when the national library (the British Library) moved to a new building at
St Pancras. Today it has been transformed into the Walter and Leonore
Annenberg Centre. This contains the
Paul Hamlyn Library of books about the Museum's collections, which is open to all visitors.
With the bookstacks in the central courtyard of the museum now empty, the process of demolition for
Lord Foster's glass-roofed
Great Court could begin. The Great Court, opened in 2000, while undoubtedly improving circulation around the museum, was criticised for having a lack of exhibition space at a time when the museum was in serious financial difficulties and many galleries were closed to the public. At the same time the African and Oceanic collections that had been temporarily housed in 6 Burlington Gardens were given a new gallery in the North Wing funded by the
Sainsbury family.
Governance
non-departmental public body sponsored by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport through a three-year funding agreement. Its head is the Director. The British Museum was run from its inception by a 'Principal Librarian' (when the book collections were still part of the Museum), a role that was renamed 'Director and Principal Librarian' in 1898, and 'Director' in 1973 (on the separation of the British Library).
A board of 25
trustees (with the Director as their
accounting officer for the purposes of reporting to Government) is responsible for the general management and control of the Museum, in accordance with the British Museum Act of 1963 and the Museums and Galleries Act of 1992. Prior to the 1963 Act, it was chaired by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Lord Chancellor and the
Speaker of the House of Commons. The board was formed on the Museum's inception to
hold its collections in trust for the nation without actually owning them themselves, and now fulfil a mainly advisory role. Trustee appointments are governed by the regulatory framework set out in the code of practice on public appointments issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. For a list of current trustees, see
here
.
Building
The
Greek Revival façade facing Great Russell Street is a characteristic building of Sir
Robert Smirke, with 44 columns in the
Ionic order 45
ft (13.7 m) high, closely based on those of the temple of
Athena Polias at
Priene in
Asia Minor. The
pediment over the main entrance is decorated by sculptures by Sir
Richard Westmacott depicting
The Progress of Civilisation, consisting of fifteen
allegorical figures, installed in 1852.
The construction commenced around the courtyard with the East Wing (
The King's Library) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838, which originally housed among other galleries a reading room, now the Wellcome Gallery. Work was also progressing on the northern half of the West Wing (The Egyptian Sculpture Gallery) 1826–1831, with
Montagu House demolished in 1842 to make room for the final part of the West Wing, completed in 1846, and the South Wing with its great colonnade, initiated in 1843 and completed in 1847, when the Front Hall and Great Staircase were opened to the public. The Museum is faced with Portland stone, but the perimeter walls and other parts of the building were built using
Haytor granite from Dartmoor in South Devon, transported via the unique
Haytor Granite Tramway.
In 1846 Robert Smirke was replaced as the Museum's architect by his brother
Sydney Smirke, whose major addition was the
Round Reading Room 1854–1857; at 140 feet (42.6 m) in diameter it was then the second widest dome in the world, the
Pantheon in
Rome being slightly wider.
The next major addition was the White Wing 1882–1884 added behind the eastern end of the South Front, the architect being Sir
John Taylor.
In 1895, Parliament gave the Museum Trustees a loan of £200,000 to purchase from the Duke of Bedford all 69 houses which backed onto the Museum building in the five surrounding streets - Great Russell Street, Montague Street, Montague Place, Bedford Square and Bloomsbury Street. The Trustees planned to demolish these houses and to build around the West, North and East sides of the Museum new galleries that would completely fill the block on which the Museum stands. The architect Sir
John James Burnet was petitioned to put forward ambitious long-term plans to extend the building on all three sides. Most of the houses in Montague Place were knocked down a few years after the sale. Of this grand plan only the Edward VII galleries in the centre of the North Front were ever constructed, these were built 1906-14 to the design by J.J. Burnet, and opened by
King George V and
Queen Mary in 1914. They now house the Museum's collections of Prints and Drawings and Oriental Antiquities. There wasn't enough money to put up more new buildings, and so the houses in the other streets are nearly all still standing.
The
Duveen Gallery, sited to the west of the Egyptian, Greek & Assyrian sculpture galleries, was designed to house the Elgin Marbles by the American
Beaux-Arts architect
John Russell Pope. Although completed in 1938, it was hit by a bomb in 1940 and remained semi-derelict for 22 years, before reopening in 1962. Other areas damaged during
World War II bombing included: in September 1940 two unexploded bombs hit the Edward VII galleries, the King's Library received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, incendiaries fell on the dome of the Round Reading Room but did little damage; on the night of 10 to
11 May 1941 several incendiaries fell on the south west corner of the Museum, destroying the book stack and 150,000 books in the courtyard and the galleries around the top of the Great Staircase – this damage wasn't fully repaired until the early 1960s.
The
Queen Elizabeth II Great Court is a covered square at the centre of the British Museum designed by the engineers
Buro Happold and the architects
Foster and Partners. The Great Court opened in December 2000 and is the largest covered square in Europe. The roof is a glass and steel construction with 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass. At the centre of the Great Court is the Reading Room vacated by the British Library, its functions now moved to St Pancras. The Reading Room is open to any member of the public who wishes to read there.
Today, the British Museum has grown to become one of the largest Museums in the world, covering an area of over 13.5 acres or 75,000 m² of exhibition space, showcasing approximately 50,000 items from its collection. There are nearly one hundred galleries open to the public, representing 2 miles (3.2 km) of exhibition space, although the less popular ones have restricted opening times. However, the lack of a large temporary exhibition space has led to the £100 million North West Development Project to provide one and to concentrate all the Museum's conservation facilities into one Conservation Centre. This project was announced in July 2007, with the architects
Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, and is expected for completion by 2011.
Departments
Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan
The British Museum houses the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of
Egyptian antiquities outside the
Egyptian Museum in
Cairo. A collection of immense importance for its range and quality, it includes objects of all periods from virtually every site of importance in
Egypt and the
Sudan. Together they illustrate every aspect of the cultures of the
Nile Valley (including
Nubia), from the
Predynastic Neolithic period (c. 10,000
BC) through to the
Coptic (Christian) times (12th century
AD), a time-span over 11,000 years.
Egyptian antiquities have formed part of the British Museum collection ever since its foundation in 1753 after receiving 160 Egyptian objects from Sir
Hans Sloane. After the defeat of the forces under
Napoleon at the
Battle of the Nile in 1801, the Egyptian antiquities collected were confiscated by the
British army and presented to the British Museum in 1803. These works, which included the famed
Rosetta Stone, were the first important group of large sculptures to be acquired by the Museum. Thereafter, Britain appointed
Henry Salt as
consul in
Egypt who amassed a huge collection of antiquities. Most of the antiquities Salt collected were purchased by the British Museum and the
Musée du Louvre. By 1866 the collection consisted of some 10,000 objects. Antiquities from excavations started to come to the Museum in the later 19th century as a result of the work of the
Egypt Exploration Fund under the efforts of
E.A. Wallis Budge. The collection stood at 57,000 objects by 1924. Active support by the Museum for excavations in Egypt continued to result in useful acquisitions throughout the 20th century until changes in antiquities laws in Egypt led to the suspension of policies allowing finds to be exported. The size of the Egyptian collections now stands at over 110,000 objects.
In autumn 2001 the eight million objects forming the Museum's permanent collection were further expanded by the addition of six million objects from the Wendorf Collection of
Egyptian and
Sudanese Prehistory. These were donated by Professor Fred Wendorf of
Southern Methodist University in
Texas, and comprise the entire collection of artefacts and environmental remains from his excavations between 1963 and 1997. They are in the care of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan.
The seven permanent Egyptian galleries at the British Museum, which include its largest exhibition space (Room 4, for monumental sculpture), can display only 4% of its Egyptian holdings. The second-floor galleries have a selection of the Museum's collection of 140
mummies and coffins, the largest outside
Cairo. A high proportion of the collection comes from
tombs or contexts associated with the cult of the dead, and it's these pieces, in particular the mummies, that remain among the most eagerly sought after exhibits by visitors to the Museum.
Key highlights of the collections Include:
Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities
The Department of
Greek and
Roman Antiquities of the British Museum has one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of antiquities from the
Classical world, with over 100,000 objects. These mostly range in date from the beginning of the
Greek Bronze Age (about 3200BC) to the reign of the
Roman Emperor Constantine I in the 4th century AD, with some
pagan survivals.
The
Cycladic,
Minoan and
Mycenaean cultures are represented, and the
Greek collection includes important sculpture from the
Parthenon in
Athens, as well as elements of two of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the
Mausoleum at Halikarnassos and the
Temple of Artemis at
Ephesos.
The Department also houses one of the widest-ranging collections of
Italic and
Etruscan antiquities and extensive groups of material from
Cyprus. The collections of ancient jewellery and bronzes,
Greek vases and
Roman glass and silver are particularly important.
Key highlights of the collections include:
» ;
Athenian Akropolis
The Parthenon Gallery (Elgin Marbles) » *The Parthenon Marbles are one of the finest manifestations of human creation. The Magnificent
Relief Frieze showing the
Panathenaic procession, from
Ancient Greece, often praised as the finest achievement of
Greek Architecture, its decorative
sculptures are considered one of the high points of
Greek art.
» Erechtheion
*One of six remaining
Caryatids
» *Surviving Column
» Athena Nike
*Surviving
Frieze Slabs
» ;
Bassae Sculptures
*Twenty three surviving blocks of the frieze from the interior of the temple are exhibited on an upper level.
» ;
Mausoleum of Halikarnassos
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World » *Two colossal free-standing figures identified as Maussollos and his wife
Artemisia.
*Part of an impressive horse from the
chariot group adorning the summit of the
Mausoleum » *The
Amazonomachy frieze - A long section of relief frieze showing the battle between Greeks and
Amazons
» ;Temple of Artemis at Ephesos
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
» ;
Asia Minor
Nereid Monument » *Partial reconstruction of the Monument, a large and elaborate Lykian tomb from the site of
Xanthos in south-west
Turkey
*Payava Tomb from Xanthos in south west Turkey
» ;
Wider Museum Collection
*Material from the
Palace of Knossos » *
Portland Vase
*The
Warren Cup » *
Discus-thrower (Discobolos)
*
Towneley SculpturesDepartment of the Middle East
With approximately 330,000 objects in the collection, the British Museum has the greatest collection of
Mesopotamian antiquities outside
Iraq. The holdings of
Assyrian,
Babylonian and
Sumerian antiquities are among the most comprehensive in the world.
The collections represent the civilisations of the ancient Near East and its adjacent areas. These include
Mesopotamia,
Persia, the
Arabian Peninsula,
Anatolia, the
Caucasus, parts of
Central Asia,
Syria,
Palestine and
Phoenician settlements in the western
Mediterranean from the
prehistoric period until the beginning of
Islam in the 7th century. The collection includes six iconic
winged human-headed statues from
Nimrud and
Khorsabad. Stone
bas-reliefs, including the famous Royal Lion Hunt relief's (Room 10), that were found in the palaces of the Assyrian kings at
Nimrud and
Nineveh. The
Royal Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh and
Sumerian treasures found in Royal Cemetery's at
Ur of the Chaldees.
The earliest
Mesopotamian objects to enter collections purchased by the British Museum in 1772 from
Sir William Hamilton. The Museum also acquired at this early date a number of sculptures from
Persepolis. The next significant addition (in 1825) was from the collection of
Claudius James Rich. The collection was dramatically enlarged by the excavations of
A.H. Layard at the
Assyrian sites of
Nimrud and
Nineveh between 1845–1851.
At Nimrud, Layard discovered the North-West Palace of
Ashurnasirpal II, as well as three other palaces and various temples. He also opened in the Palace of
Sennacherib at Nineveh with 'no less than seventy-one halls'. As a result a large numbers of
Lamassu's, bas-reliefs,
stelae, including the
Black Obelisk of
Shalmaneser III were brought to the British Museum. Layard's work was continued by his assistant,
Hormuzd Rassam and in 1852–1854 he went on to discover the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh with many magnificent reliefs, including the famous Royal Lion Hunt scenes. He also discovered the
Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, a large collection of
cuneiform tablets of enormous importance.
W.K. Loftus excavated in Nimrud between 1850–1855 and found a remarkable hoard of
ivories in the Burnt Palace. Between 1878–1882 Rassam greatly improved the Museum's holdings with exquisite objects including the
Cyrus Cylinder from
Babylon, the bronze gates from
Balawat, and a fine collection of
Urartian bronzes. Rassam collected thousands of cuneiform tablets, today with the acquisition of further tablets in the 20th century, the collection now numbers around 130,000 pieces. In the 20th century excavations were carried out at
Carchemish,
Syria between 1911–1914 and in 1920 by
D.G. Hogarth and
Leonard Woolley, the latter assisted by
T.E. Lawrence. The Mesopotamian collections were greatly augmented by excavations in southern
Iraq after the
First World War. From
Tell al-Ubaid in 1919 and 1923–1924, directed by
H.R. Hall came the bronze furnishings of a
Sumerian temple, including life-sized lions and a panel featuring the lion-headed eagle Indugud. Woolley went onto to excavate
Ur between 1922–1934, discovering the 'Royal Cemeteries' of the 3rd millennium BC. Some of the masterpieces include the '
Standard of Ur', the 'Ram in a Thicket', the '
Royal Game of Ur', and two bull-headed
lyres.
Although the collections centre on Mesopotamia most of the surrounding areas are well-represented. The
Achaemenid collection was enhanced with the addition of the
Oxus Treasure in 1897, by acquisition from the German scholar
Ernst Herzfeld, and then by the work of
Sir Aurel Stein. From
Palmyra there's a large collection of nearly forty funerary busts, acquired in the 19th century. A group of stone
reliefs from the excavations of
Max von Oppenheim at
Tell Halaf, purchased in 1920. More excavated material from the excavations of
Max Mallowan at
Chagar Bazar and
Tell Brak in 1935–1938, and from Woolley at
Alalakh in the years just before and after the
Second World War. The collection of
Palestinian material was strengthened with the acquisition in 1980 of around 17,000 objects found at
Lachish by the Wellcome-Marston expedition of 1932–1938.
A representative selection, including the most important pieces, are on display in 13 galleries and total some 4500 objects. The remainder form the study collection which ranges in size from beads to large sculptures. They include approximately 130,000
cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia.
The museum's collection of Islamic art, including archaeological material, numbers about 40,000 objects, one of the largest of its kind in the world. As such, it contains a broad range of Islamic pottery, paintings, tiles, metalwork, glass, seals, and inscriptions.
Key Highlights of the Collections include:
Nimrud:
Alabaster bas-reliefs from:
The North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II
Central- Palace of Tiglath-Pileser III
South-West Palace of Esarhaddon
Palace of Adad-Nirari III
South-East Palace ('Burnt Palace')
The Nabu Temple (Ezida)
The Sharrat-Niphi Temple
Temple of Ninurta
Sculptures:
Pair of Human Headed 'Lamassu' Lions (883-859 BC)
Human Headed 'Lamassu' Bull (883-859 BC), sister piece in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Human Headed 'Lamassu' Lion (883-859 BC), sister piece in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Colossal Statue of a Lion (883-859 BC)
Rare Head of Human Headed 'Lamassu', recovered from the South-West Palace of Esarhaddon
The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC)
Nineveh:
Alabaster bas-reliefs from:
North-Palace of Ashurbanipal
Royal Lion Hunt Scenes
The 'Dying Lion', long been acclaimed as a masterpiece
The 'Garden Party' Relief
South-West Palace of Sennacherib
Royal Library of Ashurbanipal:
A large collection of cuneiform tablets of enormous importance approximately 22,000 inscribed clay tablets
The Flood Tablet, relating part of the famous Epic of Gilgamesh
Khorsabad:
Alabaster bas-reliefs from the Palace of Sargon II
Pair of Human Headed Winged 'Lamassu' Bulls
Wider Collection:
Cyrus Cylinder, from Babylon
The Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III
A fine collection of Urartian bronzes, which now form the core of the Anatolian collection
The Oxus Treasure
The Standard of Ur
The 'Ram in a Thicket'
The Royal Game of Ur
Queen's LyreDepartment of Prints and Drawings
The Department of Prints and Drawings holds the national collection of Western Prints and Drawings. It ranks as one of the largest collections in existence alongside the Musée du Louvre and the Hermitage as one of the top three collections of its kind.
Since its foundation in 1808 the Prints and Drawings collection has grown to international renown as one of the richest and most representative collections in the world. There are approximately 50,000 drawings and over two million prints. The collection of Drawings covers the period 14th century to the present, and includes many works of the highest quality by the leading artists of the European school. The collection of Prints covers the tradition of fine printmaking from its beginnings in the 15th century up to the present, with near complete holdings of most of the great names before the 19th century.
There are magnificent groups of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, (including his only surviving full-scale cartoon), Dürer (a collection of 138 drawings is one of the finest in existence), Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude and Watteau, and virtually complete collections of the works of all the great printmakers including unsurpassed holdings of prints by Dürer (99 engravings, 6 etchings and a substantial number of his 346 woodcuts), Rembrandt and Goya. More than 30,000 British drawings and watercolours include important examples work by Hogarth, Sandby, Turner, Girtin, Constable, Cotman, Cox, Gillray, Rowlandson and Cruikshank, as well as all the great Victorians. There are about a million British prints including more than 20,000 satires and outstanding collections of works by William Blake and Thomas Bewick.
Department of Asia
Key highlights of the collections include:
The most comprehensive collection of sculpture from the Indian subcontinent in the world, including the celebrated Buddhist limestone reliefs from Amaravati
An outstanding collection of Chinese antiquities, paintings, and porcelain, lacquer, bronze, jade, and other applied arts
A fine collection of Buddhist paintings from Dunhuang and the Admonitions Scroll by Chinese artist Gu Kaizhi (344–406 AD)
The most comprehensive collection of Japanese pre-20th century decorative arts in the western world
Image:Ku K'ai-chih 001.jpg|Painting by Chinese artist Gu Kaizhi, c. 380 AD.
Image:Ku K'ai-chih 002.jpg|Painting by Chinese artist Gu Kaizhi, c. 380 AD.
Image:Indischer Maler um 1615 (I) 001.jpg|Portrait of Ibrâhîm 'Âdil Shâh II (1580–1626), Mughal Empire of India, 1615 AD.
Image:CrystalGoose.JPG|A Hamsa sacred swan vessel made of crystal, from Gandhara, 1st century AD.
Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas
The British Museum houses one of the world's greatest and most comprehensive collections of Ethnographic material from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, representing the cultures of indigenous peoples throughout the world. Over 350,000 objects spanning two million years tells the story of the history of man, from three major continents and many rich and diverse cultures.
The Sainsbury African Galleries display 600 objects from the greatest permanent collection of African arts and culture in the world. The three permanent galleries provide a substantial exhibition space for the Museum's African collection comprising over 200,000 objects. A curatorial scope that encompasses both archaeological and contemporary material, including both unique masterpieces of artistry and objects of everyday life.
Highlights of the African collection include a magnificent brass head of a Yoruba ruler from Ife, Nigeria; Asante goldwork from Ghana and the Torday collection of Central African sculpture, textiles and weaponry.
The Americas collection mainly consists of 19th and 20th century items although the Inca, Aztec, Maya and other early cultures are well represented; collecting of modern artefacts is ongoing.
Department of Coins and Medals
The British Museum is home to one of the world's finest numismatic collections, comprising about a million objects. The collection spans the entire history of coinage from its origins in the 7th century BC to the present day. There are approximately 9,000 coins, medals and banknotes on display around the British Museum. More than half of these can be found in the HSBC Money Gallery (Gallery 68), while the remainder form part of the permanent displays throughout the Museum.
Department of Prehistory and Europe
The prehistoric collections cover Europe, Africa and Asia, the earliest African artefacts being around 2 million years old. Coverage of Europe extends to the present day.
Department of Conservation, Documentation and Science
This department was founded in 1920. Conservation has six specialist areas: ceramics & glass; metals; organic material (including textiles); stone, wall paintings and mosaics; Eastern pictorial art and Western pictorial art. The science department has and continues to develop techniques to date artefacts, analyse and identify the materials used in their manufacture, to identify the place an artefact originated and the techniques used in their creation. The department also publishes its findings and discoveries.
Libraries and Archives
This department covers all levels of education, from casual visitors, schools, degree level and beyond. The Museum's various libraries hold in excess of 350,000 books, journals and pamphlets covering all areas of the museum's collection. Also the general Museum archives which date from its foundation in 1753 are overseen by this department; the individual departments have their own separate archives covering their various areas of responsibility.
Controversy
It is a point of controversy whether museums should be allowed to possess artefacts taken from other countries, and the British Museum is a notable target for criticism. The Elgin Marbles and the Benin Bronzes are among the most disputed objects in its collections, and organisations have been formed demanding the return of both sets of artefacts to their native countries of Greece and Nigeria respectively.
The British Museum has refused to return either set, stating that the "restitutionist premise, that whatever was made in a country must return to an original geographical site, would empty both the British Museum and the other great museums of the world". The Museum has also argued that the British Museum Act of 1963 legally prevents any object from leaving its collection once it has entered it. Nevertheless, it has returned items such as the Tasmanian Ashes after a 20 year long battle with Australia. Critics have particularly argued against the right of the British Museum to own objects which it doesn't share with the public.
Supporters of the Museum claim that it has provided protection for artefacts that might have otherwise been damaged or destroyed if they'd been left in their original environments. While some critics have accepted this, they also argue that the artefacts should now be returned to their countries of origin if there's sufficient expertise and desire there to preserve them.
The British Museum continues to assert that it's an appropriate custodian and has an inalienable right to its disputed artefacts under British law.
Disputed Items in the Collection
Elgin Marbles - claimed by Greece and backed by UNESCO among others for restitution.
Benin Bronzes - claimed by Nigeria, 30 pieces sold already by The British Museum privately in the 1960s.
Ethiopian Tabots - claimed by Ethiopia.
4 stolen drawings (Nazi plunder) - Compensation paid to Uri Peled in the amount of £175,000 by the British Museum.
Achaemenid empire gold and silver artefacts from the Oxus Treasure - claimed by Tajikistan.
Aboriginal human remains - returned to Tasmania by the British museum.
Rosetta Stone - claimed by Egypt
Galleries
Building
Image:BM, Main Floor Main Entrance Hall ~ South Stairs.6.JPG|Main Staircase, Discobolus of Myron (the Discus-Thrower)
Image:BM; 'MF' RM1 - The King's Library, Enlightenment 1 'Discovering the world in the 18th century ~ View South.jpg| Room 1 - The King's Library, Enlightenment Permanent Exhibition
Floor Plans
Image:2.Upper Floors (Rooms 36-73, 90-94).JPG| Upper Floors (Rooms 36-73, 90-94)
Image:3. Lower Floor (Rooms 25, 77-89).JPG| Lower Floor (Rooms 25, 77-89)
Image:4.Great Court (Room 35).JPG| Great Court (Room 35)
Museum Galleries
Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan
Image:BM, AES Egyptian Sculpture (Room 4), View South + Towards Assyrian Sculpture Gallery (Room 6).JPG|Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture, view towards the Assyrian Transcept
Image:Egyptian Gallery.JPG| Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture
Image:England; London - The British Museum, Egypt Egyptian Sculpture (Room 4).4.JPG| Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture
Image:BM, AES Egyptian Sculpture (Room 4), View North.3.JPG| Room 4 - Egyptian Sculpture
Department of the Ancient Near East
Image:BM; RM10 - ANE, Khorsabad Palace Reliefs and Assyrian Art ~ Lamassu's.JPG| Room 10 - Khorsabad Palace Reliefs
Image:BM; RM7 - ANE, Nineveh Palace Reliefs Southwest Palace of Sennacherib (701-681 B.C) ~ Full Elevation + Viewing South.4.JPG| Room 9 - Nineveh Palace Reliefs
Image:BM;_ANE_-_Nineveh,_The_Royal_Lion_Hunt_(Room_10).JPG| Room 10 - Nineveh, The Royal Lion Hunt
Image:BM; ANE - RM 89, Assyrian Reliefs ~ Nineveh.JPG| Room 89 - Nimrud & Nineveh Palace Reliefs
Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities
Image:Elgin Marbles British Museum.jpg| Room 18 - Parthenon Freize
Image:Parthenon Frieze.JPG| Room 18 - Ancient Greece
Image:Townley Sculptures.JPG| Room 84 - Towneley Sculptures
Image: BM,GNR; The Acropolis & The late 5th C BC ~ Erechtheum Caryatid + Ionic Column (Room 19).jpg| Room 19 - Athens, Erechtheion Sculptures from the Acropolis
Exhibitions
Forgotten Empire Exhibition (October 2005 - January 2006)
Image:Forgotten Empire Exhibition, (Room 5).1.JPG | Room 5 - Exhibitions Panorama
Image:Persepolis.JPG| Room 5 - The Persepolis Casts
Image:BM; ANE - Forgotten Empire Exhibition, (Room 5).3.JPG | Room 5 - Exhibitions Relics
Image:BM; ANE - Forgotten Empire Exhibition, The Cyrus Cylinder (Room 5).JPG| Room 5 - The Cyrus Cylinder
Further Information
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