British Museum (6do encyclopedia)



The British Museum is a world-renowned museum located in the heart of London, England. It is one of the largest and most comprehensive museums in the world, with a collection spanning over two million years of human history and culture. The museum’s collections are so vast, in fact, that it requires an entire day or more to fully appreciate it.

The museum was founded in 1753, and was built on the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, a physician and naturalist. Over the years, the museum has grown and expanded its collection, becoming a major hub of cultural and historical research for scholars around the world. Visitors are always astounded by the museum’s incredible collections, which are divided into various departments, including Asia; Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; Coins and Medals; Prints and Drawings; and Middle East.

Notable items in the museum’s collection include the Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to deciphering hieroglyphics; the Parthenon sculptures, which were removed from Greece in the 19th century and are controversially displayed in the museum; and the Egyptian mummies, which are some of the best-preserved in the world.

The museum has undergone many renovations and changes over the years, including the expansion of the Great Court in 2000, which created an indoor space for visitors to relax and explore. In recent years, the museum has also come under criticism for the ways in which it acquires and displays cultural artifacts from other countries, particularly those that were taken without the consent of the countries from which they originated. However, the museum has taken steps towards restitution and repatriation, such as returning looted objects to Greece and exploring new ways to collaborate with indigenous communities and nations.

Overall, the British Museum is an exceptional resource for anyone interested in the history and culture of humanity. Its collections are vast and diverse, offering an endless supply of knowledge and inspiration to visitors. Whether you are a scholar, a student, or simply a curious traveler, the British Museum is a must-visit destination.


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Why China is still haunted by its last emperor

Telegraph

23-05-14 10:00


An exhibition at the British Museum has showcased what the museum's director calls the “forgotten century” of China's last imperial dynasty from 1796 to 1912. China's Hidden Century includes artwork and artefacts that challenge the traditional view of China in the era as inward-looking and close to failure. “Looty”, a pet Pekingese presented to Queen Victoria after British and French forces looted and burnt the Beijing Summer Palace in 1860, is among the exhibition pieces on show. The Qing dynasty is also experiencing renewed interest in China and is becoming a draw for Chinese history buffs.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/china-hidden-century-british-museum-exhibition/
Should we really send the Benin bronzes back to slave traders’ descendants?

Telegraph

23-05-14 10:00


Germany has become the first country to return Benin bronzes looted from West Africa to their original owners. Six works have been returned to Nigeria by outgoing President Buhari, despite having assured the Nigerian state that works returned from the West would be protected in a public collection. The pieces, taken from the royal palace of the Oba in Benin by British troops during a punitive expedition in 1897, were originally owned by ancestors of the current Oba. The British Museum has stated that, unlike in Germany, many of the works found in its possession were acquired legitimately by private collectors or by the British Government before being donated. This makes their disposal and transfer more complicated than cases where objects were appropriated directly by colonial powers. The museum has yet to commit itself to the return of any artefacts.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/14/should-we-send-the-benin-bronzes-back-to-slave-traders-desc/
India to ally with Greece on return of Elgin Marbles

Telegraph

23-05-14 06:00


India is beginning a long-term campaign to reclaim artefacts and grow its support network to help achieve the return of works appropriated during the colonial era to their places of origin. India, which holds the presidency of the G20 this year, will use the forum to try and build a consensus for landmarks such as the return of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum to Greece, while India itself seeks the return of artefacts, including the Koh-i-noor, from the UK. New Delhi is focusing on the protection and restitution of cultural property as a key priority in this year's G20 meeting.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/05/14/india-to-ally-with-greece-on-elgin-marbles/
Why Netflix’s ‘Queen Cleopatra’ Has Egypt up in Arms

Foreign Policy

23-05-14 01:00


Egyptian objections to the casting of a Black British actress in the role of Queen Cleopatra in Netflix’s upcoming series have been motivated by historical grievances and a long-standing Western tradition of separating modern Egyptians from their ancient heritage. Early detractors, including former US President John F. Kennedy, argued that Egypt's monuments were historical roots of Western civilization and that Western tradition was superior to that of Egypt. Some critics today are motivated by the dominant Western narrative that the ancient Egyptians were white and that modern Egyptians are inferior to their predecessors. Although some academics believe that Cleopatra may have had multiracial heritage. The new controversy highlights the issues surrounding ownership of Egyptian history and the role of race in the production and dissemination of knowledge about her history.

Today, Egypt is suffering from extreme and xenophobic nationalistic trends, which emerged after the 2013 overthrow of Islamist Muslim Brotherhood by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Opponents of Muslim Brotherhood feared that the group would distance Egypt from its historical roots in favor of foregrounding Islamic and Arab heritage as the primary marker of Egyptian culture and memory. Many sought to affirm a congenital Egyptian identity that was exclusively rooted in ancient Egyptian heritage. Sisi’s regime has endorsed such a rhetorical form of identity politics to justify its authoritarian crackdowns on opponents and critics as being necessary to protect the nation and its identity from foreign enemies.

In 2021, the Egyptian state transported the royal mummies from the Egyptian Museum to a new museum in Cairo in a spectacular gala parade. Although anti-Black racism and xenophobic attitudes have always existed in Egypt, the current trend began after 2013. Egypt has a proud legacy of having experience in racial solidarity and the fight against racism and imperialism. Egyptian leaders including Gamal Abdel Nasser, received W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and other Black and pan-Africanist figures. This legacy has a long history and helps create a renewed interest in Egypt’s pharaonic heritage, serving as a form of defiance against the Western cultural appropriation of ancient Egyptian civilization, a practice rooted in imperialism’s history.


https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/05/14/egypt-netflix-queen-cleopatra-race-history-heritage-imperialism-afrocentrism/

India to push Britain into colonial 'reckoning' with treasure demands

Telegraph

23-05-12 21:00


Indian officials are reportedly waging a diplomatic campaign to reclaim the Koh-i-Noor diamond and thousands of other treasures from the UK, in an effort to examine the country’s colonial past. The repatriation would become the largest claim in history made by Greece in its demand for the Elgin Marbles. The demand will ultimately involve a diplomatic campaign by India to secure the return of artefacts taken to the UK during the time of empire. India’s Archaeological Survey will lead this process, involving the Indian Ministerial and diplomatic staff. The move is reportedly supported by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who has placed the repatriation of India’s artefacts as a top priority. The process will also lead to diplomatic talks between the UK and India on trade matters.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/12/india-demand-colonial-treasures-koh-i-noor-britain/
China’s Hidden Century, British Museum: more chic jaunt than trip of a lifetime

Telegraph

23-05-16 00:01


An exhibition called “China’s Hidden Century” has opened at the British Museum, chronicling the history of China during the period of the Qing dynasty from the end of the eighteenth century to 1912. Critics have praised the exhibition’s efforts to inject humanity into what is a complex and distant time period. More than 300 artefacts are included, including silks, ceramics and paintings, as well as tales relating to women and minority groups. Exhibits narrate the internal conflict, as well as detailing the challenges posed by incursions from foreign powers such as the United Kingdom.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/chinas-hidden-century-british-museum-review/
Sackler name axed from Oxford University over role in opioid crisis

The Independent

23-05-17 07:33


The University of Oxford will remove the Sackler name from six of its buildings and staff posts following a review of its ties with the family, which has been associated with the US opioid crisis. The Sackler Family Trust has been among the institution’s donors and the Sackler name had featured at the Sackler Library and several galleries and staff posts at the Ashmolean Museum. Oxford University said it would retain donations received from the family and its trusts for their intended purposes and that the Sackler name would be retained on the Ashmolean’s donor board for historical purposes.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/sackler-opioid-crisis-oxford-university-purdue-pharma-b2340360.html
Oxford University wipes the Sackler name from its buildings

CNN

23-05-17 12:02


Oxford University is set to remove the Sackler name from its buildings following a review of its relationship with the family. The university will remove the name from prominent landmarks such as the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology and the Bodleian Library. The Sackler name will also be removed from the title of a professorship. Oxford did not disclose any further details regarding the contents of the review. The decision reportedly has the full support of the Sackler family and the name will be retained on two donor boards. The Louvre Museum in Paris took down the Sackler name in 2019. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art did the same in 2021. UK institutions including the British Museum have already severed ties with the family in the wake of the opioid crisis. The university said in its statement that it had not accepted donations from the Sackler family or its charitable trusts since January 2019. A Financial Times investigation claimed the University had accepted money from a Sackler family member for ongoing research in the previous two years.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/17/business/oxford-university-sackler-name-removal/index.html
London's Big China Show Treads On Tricky Ground

Bloomberg

23-05-18 04:00


The blockbuster exhibition China’s Hidden Century, opening this week at the British Museum, places responsibility for the violence inflicted on 19th-century China on Britain and other foreign powers, while exuding admiration for China’s resilience and innovation. Exhibition organisers said their four-year research project involved over 100 scholars in 14 countries, and will “open a new page in public understanding of late imperial China”. Its 300 pieces, half of which have never been seen in public before, cover the Qing dynasty from 1796 to 1912, a period of great upheaval in China, ending when a revolution overthrew the last emperor. However, the exhibition walks a diplomatic tightrope; blame is unequivocally placed on foreign powers for provoking the Opium Wars and thereby sparking China’s traumatic “century of humiliation”, a myth central to the Communist Party’s legitimating narrative of China as a successful state. A reappraisal of 19th-century China threatens this narrative.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-05-18/british-museum-s-big-china-show-treads-on-tricky-ground?srnd=next-china
The best gardens at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show

Telegraph

23-05-19 17:13


The vast majority of the show gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show this year are naturalistic and use reclaimed materials, largely because they are sponsored by charitable organizations. The models of yesteryear, which were typically sponsored by champagne houses, banks and investment companies, are in retreat. Even where highly engineered materials were used, such as the gabion walls in The Samaritans' Listening Garden, they were filled with rocks, broken terracotta and timber rather than the more common pebbles and chippings. The natural themes also extend to planting, with a preference for more resilient plants than in previous years. Some experts believe this year's gardens may ironically be helping to bring the ageing Chelsea Flower Show closer to a younger generation more conscious of climate change.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/chelsea-flower-show/highlights-chelsea-flower-show-2023-review-best-gardens/
Greece recovers hundreds of antiquities from UK art thief

South China Morning Post

23-05-20 16:00


Greece has recovered 351 looted artefacts, which were stolen from the country and beyond by British antiquities dealer Robin Symes. The objects include a rare bronze statue of Alexander the Great, dating back to the second century BC. Repatriation proceedings against Symes’ eponymous company began in 2006, but only ended with the recovery of archaeological pieces stolen from Italy and stored by Symes in 2016. Among the objects returned to Greece are a 4th millennium BC Neolithic-era statuette and an Early Cycladic figurine from between 3200 and 2700 BC.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3221273/greece-recovers-hundreds-priceless-antiquities-british-art-thief-after-17-year-legal-battle
Pictures of the week: Surfers Against Sewage and Rishi Sunak in Japan

The Independent

23-05-20 19:32


The Independent has gathered some of the most eye-catching and thought-provoking images from culture, news, politics, sport, and lifestyle. The images include striking shots of the Popocatepetl Volcano in Mexico, and cattle grazing in front of the German Parliament building in Berlin, as well as photographs from events such as the closing ceremony of Southeast Asian Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the Brussels Pride parade. Some of the images in the collection are oddly bewildering, like a raven perching on the roof of a barn in the midst of smoke from a nearby wildfire in Canada.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/best-photos-surfers-against-sewage-protests-rishi-sunak-japan-monkey-b2334869.html