The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution

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Hoard of Southern Song dynasty ceramic vessels excavated at Pinagbayanan, Taysan Municipality, Philippines, (12th–13th centuries AD) placed in a special room to be called the Waddesdon Bequest Room separate and apart from the other contents of the Museum and thenceforth for ever thereafter, keep the same in such room or in some other room to be substituted for it. [37]

Lycurgus Cup, a unique figurative glass cage cup, and the Byzantine Archangel ivory panel, (4th–6th centuries) 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 (43m) in diameter it was then the second widest dome in the world, the Pantheon in Rome being slightly wider. This display puts the spotlight on Genoa, an artistic powerhouse that rivalled Venice, Florence and Rome. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the port city was one of Italy's major artistic centres and among the wealthiest cities on the Italian peninsula, with strong trade links across Europe and beyond. Beginning from the early Bronze Age, the department also houses one of the widest-ranging collections of Italic and Etruscan antiquities outside Italy, as well as extensive groups of material from Cyprus and non-Greek colonies in Lycia and Caria on Asia Minor. There is some material from the Roman Republic, but the collection's strength is in its comprehensive array of objects from across the Roman Empire, with the exception of Britain (which is the mainstay of the Department of Prehistory and Europe). Polished jade axe produced in the Italian Alps and found in Canterbury, Kent, southeast England, (4500–4000 BC)Ornate gold fibula with granulated parade of animals from the Bernardini Tomb, Cerveteri, (675–650 BC) The Battlefield Palette and Hunters Palette, two cosmetic palettes with complex decorative schemes ( c. 3100 BC)

The most comprehensive collection of sculpture from the Indian subcontinent in the world, including the celebrated Buddhist limestone reliefs from Amaravati excavated by Sir Walter Elliot [95] Find sources: "British Museum"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( January 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Three sandstone carved sculptures of the Buddha in Gupta style from Sarnath, eastern India, (5th–6th centuries AD) The British Museum is home to one of the world's finest numismatic collections, comprising about a million objects, including coins, medals, tokens and paper money. The collection spans the entire history of coinage from its origins in the 7th century BC to the present day and is representative of both the East and West. The Department of Coins and Medals was created in 1861 and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2011. [101] Department of Conservation and Scientific Research [ edit ]In 2013 the museum received a record 6.7million visitors, an increase of 20% from the previous year. [51] Popular exhibitions including "Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum" and "Ice Age Art" are credited with helping fuel the increase in visitors. [52] Plans were announced in September 2014 to recreate the entire building along with all exhibits in the video game Minecraft in conjunction with members of the public. [53] A number of films have been shot at the British Museum. [54] Governance [ edit ] Director [ edit ] The turmoil has given fresh momentum to calls for some of the museum’s celebrated and looted objects to be returned to their original homes. Handscroll silk painting called 'Fascination of Nature' by Xie Chufang depicting insects and plants, China, (1321 AD) Occasionally we may need to close galleries at short notice. We regret that we are not always able to alert visitors in advance of their visit.

Intimate letters, poems and drawings will offer powerful insights into his faith, relationships and experiences of old age.Bronze heads of the Roman emperors Hadrian and Claudius, found in London and Suffolk, (1st–2nd centuries) The Asahi Shimbun Displays are a series of regularly changing displays that allow the Museum to showcase important objects, to create small exhibits of topical interest and to learn more about improving the future display of objects elsewhere in the Museum. These displays have been made possible by the generous sponsorship of The Asahi Shimbun Company, who are long-standing supporters of the British Museum.

The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. [3] It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. [a] The British Museum was the first public national museum to cover all fields of knowledge. [4] It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and you can find parts of it at the British Museum. Statues from the mausoleum can be found in the Ancient Greek wing on the ground floor. 10. Shrine of Amaravati Credit: British MuseumThe Museum has positive relationships with the royal palace in Benin City and with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM).