the british museum essay

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British Museum

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British Museum , in London , comprehensive national museum with particularly outstanding holdings in archaeology and ethnography . It is located in the Bloomsbury district of the borough of Camden .

Established by act of Parliament in 1753, the museum was originally based on three collections: those of Sir Hans Sloane ; Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford ; and Sir Robert Cotton . The collections (which also included a significant number of manuscripts and other library materials) were housed in Montagu House, Great Russell Street, and were opened to the public in 1759. The museum’s present building, designed in the Greek Revival style by Sir Robert Smirke , was built on the site of Montagu House in the period 1823–52 and has been the subject of several subsequent additions and alterations. Its famous round Reading Room was built in the 1850s; beneath its copper dome laboured such scholars as Karl Marx , Virginia Woolf , Peter Kropotkin , and Thomas Carlyle . In 1881 the original natural history collections were transferred to a new building in South Kensington to form the Natural History Museum , and in 1973 the British Museum’s library was joined by an act of Parliament with a number of other holdings to create the British Library . About half the national library’s holdings were kept at the museum until a new library building was opened at St. Pancras in 1997.

After the books were removed, the interior of the Reading Room was repaired and restored to its original appearance. In addition, the Great Court (designed by Norman Foster ), a glass-roofed structure surrounding the Reading Room, was built. The Great Court and the refurbished Reading Room opened to the public in 2000. Also restored in time for the 250th anniversary of the museum’s establishment was the King’s Library (1823–27), the first section of the newly constituted British Museum to have been constructed. It now houses a permanent exhibition on the Age of Enlightenment .

Among the British Museum’s most famous holdings are the Elgin Marbles , which were removed in the early 19th century from the Parthenon in Athens and shipped to England by arrangement of  Thomas Bruce, 7th Lord Elgin . The Greek government frequently demanded the return of the marbles, but the British Museum—claiming among other reasons that it had saved the marbles from certain damage and deterioration—did not accede, and the issue remained controversial. Other objects in the collection include Greek sculptures from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; the Rosetta Stone , which provided the key to reading ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs; the Black Obelisk and other Assyrian relics from the palace and temples at Calah (modern Nimrūd) and Nineveh ; exquisite gold, silver, and shell work from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur ; the so-called Portland Vase , a 1st-century- ce cameo glass vessel found near Rome; treasure from the 7th-century- ce ship burial found at Sutton Hoo , Suffolk; and Chinese ceramics from the Ming and other dynasties .

The British Museum: The Complete Guide

 Gautier Houba / TripSavvy

The British Museum

London is home to dozens of memorable museums, from the Tate Britain to the National Portrait Gallery, but one of its most extensive collections of objects and art can be found in the British Museum. The national museum, which is free for visitors in its permanent collection, has an expansive range of cool stuff, including Egyptian mummies, the Rosetta Stone and the Sutton Hoo ship burial. It welcomes travelers of all ages (who doesn't love a mummy?) and its experience can be tailored to any attention span or interest. Be sure to include the museum in your London itinerary, even if it's just to come in to see the impressive Great Court or to catch a glimpse of some historic samurai armor. Here's everything you need to know ahead of your visit.

Museum History

Founded in 1753, the British Museum first opened its doors to the public in 1759 as the first national museum to cover all fields of human knowledge. The museum was created by an act of Parliament and was intended to invite in "all studious and curious persons," meaning that the initial visitors needed to apply for tickets. In the 1830s, the museum began to welcome in more and more visitors, and today more than six million people explore the British Museum each year. Its collection now includes around eight million objects, which cover two million years of human history, and the Reading Room, completed in 1857, has become a popular place to seek out knowledge.

The museum's much-photographed Great Court, which is known in full as Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, is the largest covered public square in Europe. The two-acre room, designed by Foster and Partners, was redesigned reopened in 2000 (when it was opened by the Queen herself). Inside, visitors can find the Lion of Knidos, among other famed antiquities.

Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

What to See and Do

The British Museum can be overwhelming as there's a lot to see in the museum's permanent collection. Some of the highlights include the Egyptian sculpture gallery, where you'll find the Rosetta Stone and the Statue of Ramesses II, and the Africa Galleries, which include both antiquities and contemporary pieces. The entire world is represented throughout the galleries, from Oceania to Japan to Britain itself, so it's best to plan a route that suits your interests. The British Museum's museum map offers several possible trails to follow through the rooms, including one suited to kids and another that looks specifically at LGBTQIA+ history.

The museum typically hosts one or two special exhibitions alongside their collection at any given time, which you can check out in advance on their website. The special exhibitions are usually hosted for several months and most require a purchased tickets to enter. The institution's calendar also includes regular lectures, talks and special events, some of which are free to visitors.

Once you've fully explored the galleries and exhibitions, head to one of the museum's eateries. These include the Court Café, a casual spot inside the Great Court serving sandwiches, snacks and drinks, and the Great Court Restaurant, which serves morning tea and coffee, lunch and afternoon tea, as well as dinner on Fridays when the museum is open late. There is also the Pizzeria, Montague Café and the Coffee Lounge, and food trucks can frequently be found in the outdoor area of the museum along with tables.

 Oli Scarff/Getty Images

How to Visit

The British Museum is an extremely popular attraction for visitors to London and it's easily accessible in the central part of the city. Because the museum is convenient to other attractions, including the West End and Trafalgar Square, and because the permanent collection is free, a visit to the British Museum can be as long or short as you want. Whether you prefer to stop by to see the Rosetta Stone (which can be found not far from the entrance) or you want to fully explore all the exhibitions, the museum is pretty hassle-free.

Visitors are required to purchase tickets for any special exhibitions (which can be done in advance online or at the ticket office), but entry to the regular collection is free and doesn't require a ticket. The museum is open Monday through Sunday, closing during the year only from December 24-26, and last entry is at 3:30 p.m. daily. The museum also hosts late hours on Fridays , with the galleries open until 8:30 p.m. alongside events and talks.

Getting There

The British Museum is located on Great Russell Street near Russell Square and can be accessed easily from several London Underground stations. The museum is equidistant from the Russell Square, Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street and Holborn Tube stations, which serve numerous London Underground lines. There is also a variety of London bus lines that stop close to the museum, including the 14, 168, 176, 19, 24, 38, 68, 8 and 98. Use the Transport for London Trip Planner tool to find your best route to the museum.

For those who prefer not to take public transportation (although that's the recommended way to get to the British Museum), look for London's black cabs or use the Uber app to hail a ride share car. When leaving, head to the taxi rank on Great Russell Street at the museum's main gates. There is no parking at the museum so it's best to avoid driving your own car into Central London when visiting. Bicycle racks are also available inside the gates of the Main Entrance on Great Russell Street.

You can, of course, also walk to the museum, which is a great way to see the surrounding area on a nice day. From Big Ben or Trafalgar Square, stroll north through Covent Garden (where you'll find lots of shops and restaurants) to find the British Museum (and be sure to check out Russell Square, a beautiful park, on your way out).

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Tips For Visiting

• All visitors are required to pass through a security check, which includes a bag search, at the entrance to the British Museum. Be sure to be prepared and avoid bringing in large luggage. Wheeled suitcases and sports equipment are not allowed inside the museum. Luggage storage can be found at nearby train stations, including Euston, King's Cross and Charing Cross.
• The British Museum has an easy access route for those with accessibility issues. The route is available for disabled visitors and visitors with strollers and/or children under five, as well as museum members. Strollers are allowed, but must be kept with you during your visit. Wheelchairs can be reserved in advance for those who need them.
• Free Wi-Fi is available to all visitors. Look for the "British Museum WiFi" network on your device and enter your name and email address to access.
• Most galleries allow hand-held flash photography and video recording as long as it's for private purposes, although tripods, monopods and selfie sticks are not allowed. Watch for signs indicating when photography is prohibited (often in special exhibitions).
• Don't miss the British Museum Shop, which sells a huge array of souvenirs and gifts, from books to jewelry to small replicas of some of the museum's memorable works.
• If you plan to make several visits to the British Museum or simply want to support the institution, consider purchasing a museum membership. There are several levels of membership and all include unlimited free access to the special exhibitions and access to the Members' Room.

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The British Museum

The British Museum holds in trust for the nation and the world a collection of art and antiquities from ancient and living cultures.

The British Museum was founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world. From the beginning it granted free admission to all ‘studious and curious persons’. The Museum was based on the practical principle that the collection should be put to public use and be freely accessible. It was also grounded in the Enlightenment idea that human cultures can, despite their differences, understand one another through mutual engagement. The Museum was to be a place where this kind of humane cross-cultural investigation could happen. It still is.

Housed in one of Britain’s architectural landmarks, the collection is one of the finest in existence, spanning two million years of human history. Visitor numbers have grown from around 5,000 a year in the eighteenth century to nearly 6 million today.

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Gaye Sculthorpe , The British Museum

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Maria Nugent , Australian National University ; Gaye Sculthorpe , The British Museum , and Howard Morphy , Australian National University

Friday essay: 5 museum objects that tell a story of colonialism and its legacy

Alistair Paterson , The University of Western Australia ; Andrea Witcomb , Deakin University ; Gaye Sculthorpe , The British Museum ; Shino Konishi , The University of Western Australia , and Tiffany Shellam , Deakin University

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Highlights of the British Museum: 10 Objects from Around the World

Tue 27 Sep 2022

When the doctor and avid collector Sir Hans Sloane donated his massive collection of 71,000 artefacts to the British State in 1753, the world’s first public national museum was born. Originally sited in the palatial Montagu House, the collection was free and open to ‘all studious and curious persons’ from the outset. The collection quickly grew, and a massive new neo-classical building designed by Robert Smirke was constructed between 1825 and 1857 to house the museum. As the British Empire reached the peak of its power and extent, objects kept flooding in from across the globe, and today the museum is home to a staggering 8 million objects. From ancient Greece to Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria and beyond, whatever you’re interested in you’ll find it here. You could easily spend weeks or months in the sprawling collection without seeing everything, but if you’re looking for somewhere to start then check out our guide to 10 highlights of the British Museum below! 

The Parthenon Marbles

Also known as the Elgin marbles, this collection of Greek sculptures taken from the Parthenon in Athens is possibly the most important grouping of classical sculpture in existence. The Parthenon is the centrepiece of the Athenian Acropolis, and was decorated with sculptures by the renowned ancient sculptor Phidias and his assistants between 443 and 437 BC. The majority of the sculptures in the British Museum come from the 160 metre-long frieze that ran around the building, and features scenes from ancient war and mythology. Comprising hundreds of human, animal and mythological figures, the highly naturalistic Parthenon marbles are widely considered the high-point of the High-Classical period of Greek sculpture. The Earl of Elgin, Thomas Bruce, removed a large proportion of the Parthenon frieze between 1801 and 1812 and had them carted back to Britain in a move whose legality has been questioned ever since. The marbles remain amongst the British Museum’s most controversial objects but are an absolute must-see for anyone interested in Classical art. 

Where to find it: Room 18, Ground Floor, Level 0

The Nereid Monument

This monumental tomb was likely constructed on the orders of Erbinna, the ruler of Xanthos in present-day Turkey. Although Xanthos was part of the Lycian empire, the influence of Greek models of classical architecture and sculpture were widely adopted in its monuments, and Erbinna’s tomb strongly recalls the form of a Greek temple. The monument is named after the highly expressive sculptures that were located between the tomb’s columns, which depict the Nereids - sea nymphs that provided protection to sailors on the stormy high seas. Although the temple’s reconstruction at the British Museum is hypothetical and the location of the individual sculptures open to debate, the Nereid monument gives a vivid sense of the refined culture of the Lycians.

Where to find it:  Room 17, Ground floor, Level 0

Coffin of Hornedjitef

Most visitors coming to the British Museum make a beeline for the Egyptian rooms, and for good reason. The museum’s display of mummies, sarcophagi and funerary objects from the ancient empire on the Nile are truly jaw-dropping, none more so than the coffin and mummy of the Egyptian high priest Hornedjitef, who was responsible for the Temple of Amun at Karnak in the Ptolemaic period. For ancient Egyptians like Hornedjitef, the mummification of the body was central to one’s chances of life after death. The delicately decorated inner case of the priest’s coffin is a masterful example of Egyptian art, and features a map of the celestial sphere to help him on his journey through the afterlife. It’s an eerie experience indeed to lock gazes with this powerful figure from across the centuries, his eye shining out from the golden features of his sculpted face. Also belonging to Hornedjitef’s funerary objects is a fascinating papyrus Book of the Dead, a collection of spells and invocations that were intended to aid the defunct priest’s difficult journey through the underworld and into the afterlife beyond. 

Where to find it: Room 63, Upper Floors, Level 3

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is one of the most important objects in the story of ancient Egypt, and was the final key to deciphering the hieroglyphic language that was for centuries one of the most enduring mysteries of Egyptology. The massive stone was originally part of a larger slab known as a stela , and has an official decree voicing support from the priests of Memphis for king Ptolemy V inscribed onto its surface. Crucially, the decree is recounted in three languages - hieroglyphics, or the official language of state, Demotic, or the popular script used in everyday Egyptian life, and Ancient Greek - the language of bureaucracy. As Ancient Greek was known to scholars when the stone was found at the end of the 18th century, it became possible to crack the code of the hieroglyphs by comparing the texts. The painstaking process was completed by French philologist Jean-François Champollion, paving the way for a new understanding of Egyptian history, society and culture. 

Where to find it:  Room 4, Ground Floor, Level 0

Winged Lions of Nimrud

With developed societies extending as far back as 10,000 BC, the Middle East was the cradle of ancient civilisation - it’s to the ancient Mesopatamians that we owe vital human discoveries such as the wheel, agriculture, writing, mathematics and much more. Between the 10th and 7th centuries BC the Neo-Assyrian empire was the world’s most powerful state, extending all the way from the Mediterranean in the west to the Persian Gulf in the east and the Caucasus Mountains  in the north, and a number of colossal sculptures surviving to this day are testament to the wealth and grandeur of this lost civilisation. These enormous 9th-century BC sculptures of winged lions with stylised human heads and long beards originally guarded the throne room of King Ashurnasipal the city of Nimrud (now in northern Iraq), and were believed to protect the city from harm. 

Where to find it:  Room 6, Ground Floor, Level 0

Bronze Portrait of the Emperor Augustus

The ancient Roman empire was one of the greatest and most powerful civilizations the world has ever known, and its story is inextricably tied up with the empire’s first and longest-serving emperor - Augustus. Rising to power in the aftermath of the bloody civil war that was unleashed in the wake of Julius Caesar’s assassination , Augustus proved to be a brilliant statesman and popular ruler. This remarkable bronze portrait captures the charisma, dignity and commanding nature of the man: his magnetic gaze will be sure to stop you in your tracks as you make your way through the museum. The sculpture was originally part of a full-body statue of the emperor that stood near the Roman empire’s southern border in Egypt. The area was captured by the Sudanese Kushite kingdom in 25 BC, and the Augustan statue dismembered, decapitated and buried. Augustus would only see the light of day again nearly 2,000 years later, when it was excavated by English archaeologist John Garstang in 1910.

Where to find it:  Room 70, Upper Floor, Level 3

Lewis Chessmen

Where to find it:  Room 40, Upper Floors, Level 3

Sutton Hoo Helmet

The Anglo-Saxon ship burial discovered at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk in 1939 was one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries of medieval British history, recently immortalised in Netflix drama The Dig . Amongst the hoard’s highlights is this jaw-dropping decorated helmet. It’s one of only four complete helmets to survive from the Anglo-Saxon period, and dates from the 6th or 7th century. Constructed from iron covered in copper alloy panels, designs on the helmet depict scenes of warriors and zoomorphic motifs, indicating that the helmet was a highly prestigious object, equal parts functional and aesthetic.  

Where to find it:  Room 41, Upper Floors, Level 3

Mexican Serpent Mosaic

An iconic example of central-American art, this stunning double-headed serpent was meticulously crafted from over 2,000 pieces of turquoise mosaic and shells attached to a wooden framework. The snake was sculpted sometime in the 15th or 16th century, and reflects the religious significance that the reptile held for the Aztec people, whose most important god, Quetzlcoatl, took the form of a feathered serpent. The Aztec empire was the most extensive and largest in the Americas before the arrival of European invaders, and serpent sculptures survive from across their vast territories. The shimmering turquoise tiles and gleaming bared teeth seem to make the snake come alive, and it’s not hard to imagine the powerful effect this object would have had when worn during rituals and religious ceremonies.

Where to find it:  Room 27, Ground Floor, Level 0

The Ife Head

This magnificent brass sculpture depicts the portrait of an Ooni, or sacred ruler of the Yoruba-speaking Kingdom of Ife in modern-day Nigeria wearing an elaborate headdress. The beautiful head dates from the 14th-century, and its striking naturalism and psychological intensity is characteristic of Ife sculpture. When this stunning object first went on display in the Museum in the 1930s it caused something of a controversy, with many viewers refusing to accept that 14th-century West African artists were capable of such realism. Today however the object is accepted for what it is - one of the shining cultural examples of a highly developed African kingdom.  

Where to find it:  Room 25, Lower Floor, Level -2

Through Eternity Tours offer  expert-led guided itineraries through the colllections of the British Museums as well as many other sites in London. To find out more, check out the full range of our London tours here !

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Why Is the British Museum Still Fighting to Keep the Parthenon’s Marble Sculptures? 

Removed from greece more than 200 years ago, they now fuel a post-brexit fight over who is civilized and who is a barbarian.

Passengers walk past copies of some of the Parthenon Sculptures displayed in the British Museum, at the Acropolis Metro station in Athens, Greece, in 2009. Courtesy of Thanassis Stavrakis/ Associated Press .

by Gabrielle Bruney | March 18, 2020

Two-and-a-half millennia ago, Athenian artist Phidias depicted the Greek myth of the Centauromachy in his sculptures for Athens’ Parthenon. Athens, the wealthy and powerful democratic nation-state, was of course analogous in the story to the civilized Lapiths; any foes the city faced resembled the barbaric Centaurs, who, as the tale goes, attempted to rape the bride at a Lapith wedding feast, launching a battle between the two peoples.

The Parthenon still stands all these centuries later, but Phidias’ work, which once adorned the building, is scattered between the Athens’ Acropolis Museum and the British Museum nearly 2,000 miles away.

It’s been more than 200 years since Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin, obtained a royal Ottoman mandate to excavate near the Parthenon, document the sculptures, and “take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions, or sculptures therein.” An international debate has raged ever since: Did Britain’s Lord Elgin, who was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled Greece, have the legal right to remove the sculptures? Should the British Museum, the current home of the sculptures, yield to Greek demands for their return?

Recently, a line in a potential post-Brexit trade deal being drafted by Europe demanding that Britain “return unlawfully removed cultural objects to their countries of origin” has reignited the debate. It’s an issue that, much like Brexit itself, boils down to a question of “Leave” or “Remain.” But perhaps it’s also a question of who, in modern Europe, are the civilized Lapiths, and who are the barbaric Centaurs?

To understand the turns the discussion has taken, it’s helpful to go back to the sculptures’ beginning, 2,500 years ago, when the Athens city-state was at the height of its power and influence—Euripides and Sophocles were writing their great tragedies; Socrates was still young.

After a Persian invasion destroyed an older temple, Athens celebrated Greece’s victory by building the Parthenon in its place. Its name means “the virgin’s abode,” and the temple was dedicated to Athena, the virgin goddess of war and wisdom. Though a temple, it was not strictly a religious site and was used as a treasury.

The building featured hundreds of sculptures by Phidias, one of the greatest artists of Ancient Greece, whose figures tell stories of gods, celebrations, and battles. Phidias installed finely carved sculptures on multiple levels of the building: the most fully modeled were on its pediment, while the 92 highly sculpted friezes known as the metopes, sat right below the roof. Finally, the frieze, in low relief, lined the walls just above the temple’s inner columns.

Like the Centauromachy, some of the stories carved into the marble are allegorical. It’s perhaps not a coincidence that the frieze contained exactly 192 horsemen, which was the number of Athenian warriors who died at the Battle of Marathon during the first Persian invasion of Greece.

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreau, accompanied by his wife Anda and daughter Margarita visit the British Museum in London in 2000. Courtesy of Alastair Grant/ Associated Press .

The beauty and detail of the sculptures are truly awe-inspiring—every fold of every peplos, the draping, sleeveless tunic favored by women of ancient Greece, is included; not even fingernails are neglected on a frieze that was mounted 30 feet above eye level. At the center of the temple stood a giant gold-plated statue of Athena herself, known as the Athena Parthenos. At some point, that sculpture disappeared from the temple and the historical record, its whereabouts unknown.

Over the millennia, the Parthenon has changed with times, states, and faiths. Around 450 A.D., it was rededicated to a different virgin saint, Mary of Nazareth, and next became a mosque after the Ottomans took Athens in the 15th century. When a Venetian shell hit the temple in 1687, during a war between the Turks and Venice, it became the temple we know now—a ruin.

That was how Elgin viewed it at the dawn of the 19th century, when, armed with his mandate from the royal Ottoman empire, he chiseled off and conveyed to England the sculptures, metopes, and friezes from the temple that would become known as the Parthenon Marbles.

It has since been the subject of fierce debate whether or not the hazy perimeters of the stunningly inexact document Elgin obtained allowed him to simply sift through the debris surrounding the Parthenon and collect any treasures that had already fallen from the building, or remove the works from the structure.

By contemporary standards, what happened at the Parthenon was deeply unethical. No major institution like the British Museum would today acquire artifacts from an occupied land under the permission of the invading force. But those who would return the sculptures see the question of lawfulness simply: “They were ‘stolen’ in that an alien Ottoman regime was in power at the time,” says Dame Janet Suzman, celebrated Shakespearean actress and chairperson of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

And this isn’t merely a modern interpretation of Elgin’s actions: Even in 1801 contemporary witnesses to the despoiling of the Acropolis were framing the situation as a tragedy. “Athena wept over her lost virginity,” one traveler wrote at the time.

In 1816, the British Museum bought the Marbles from Elgin. The Elgin Marbles, as they became known, became an instant phenomenon when they went on view the following year. Keats was observed gazing at them in an uninterruptible rapture, and wrote his famous sonnet “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles” in response. The French Romantic Alphonse de Lamartine declared the Marbles “the most perfect poem ever written in stone on the surface of the earth.”

But they were also instantly controversial when they went on view—even in early 19th-century England, it was considered shocking for an ancient monument to be stripped of its adornments. Byron, Greece’s most famous foreign champion, was appalled, and dedicated five stanzas of “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” to his outrage.

When Greece won its independence in 1832, the campaign for the Marbles’ return began in earnest.

The British Museum, would, in turn, begin to justify its possession of the marbles by positioning itself as preservers of the sculptures, which the Ottomans had taken to grinding up for limestone. More recently, the institution has gone on to argue that it sheltered and preserved the marbles from environmental damage as the Parthenon was subject to acid rain and other environmental pollutants.

But those who advocate for repatriation point to the shoddy record of British care for the marbles, starting with the two years some of the works spent at the bottom of the ocean when one of Elgin’s ships sank, and continuing through a 1930s effort to scrub them whiter-than-white with steel wool and household bleach. In 2014, Britain undermined its longstanding argument that the Marbles were too fragile to be moved by loaning them to a museum in St. Petersburg.

The controversy will not go away, especially at the British Museum’s Duveen Gallery, which attempts to help visitors envision the works as they were intended to be displayed. Here, it’s impossible to escape the fact that this is not the way these works were supposed to be displayed. The sculptures of the east pediment are arranged at one end of the rectangular gallery; the sculptures of the west at the other, while friezes and metopes line the walls in between at eye level. This attempt to emulate what was lost in stripping the stones from the Parthenon only underscores one of the most convincing arguments cited by those who would repatriate the Marbles to Athens: this art is intensely site-specific.

“This case is unique because the Parthenon itself is standing there,” says political sociologist and University of Virginia researcher Fiona Rose-Greenland. “So you have the idea that these things are actually ornaments for a structure that exists. It’s not like they were statues pulled out of the ash heap of some building that’s no longer there.”

The Duveen Gallery does contribute one major benefit to viewers—they’re no longer dozens of feet from the ground, as they were when they decorated the Parthenon. But Phidias explicitly carved the sculptures with this distance in mind; figures in the frieze were sculpted to account for the distorting perspective of eyes 35 feet below.

Though no one will ever again stand at the Parthenon and gaze up at the sculptures above, it would be possible for visitors to see the art closer to its birthplace. Partially in response to the British Museum’s long-held contention that Greece lacked a suitable home for the Marbles, the country in 2003 opened the Acropolis Museum, where the Parthenon sculptures owned by Greece are now displayed. The Parthenon itself is visible from the galleries of the Acropolis Museum, “an eye flicker [away] from the picture window in the dedicated Parthenon Gallery,” according to Suzman.

Visitors at Athens’ Acropolis Museum look at the vista to the ancient Temple of Parthenon. Courtesy of Petros Giannakouris/ Associated Press .

Though a British government spokesperson recently said that returning the marbles is “ not up for discussion as part ” of the Brexit trade deal, there are precedents for similar returns of ancient art. In 2006, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art agreed to repatriate to Italy the Euphronios Krater, a terra cotta bowl that predates the Parthenon by approximately 100 years. The Krater may be the finest surviving example of ancient Greek pottery, and in 1972 the Met purchased it for more than one million dollars, a staggering amount at the time. But the bowl had been looted from an Italian tomb, and eventually the museum agreed to return it to Italy, in exchange for three lesser early vases.

Opponents of repatriation in the op-ed pages of the British press trot out the rather hoary argument that the return of the Marbles could lead to the gradual emptying of the world’s encyclopedic museums. The Rosetta Stone would follow the marbles out the doors of the British Museum shortly thereafter, then Berlin’s Neues Museum would be forced to ship its bust of Nefertiti back to Egypt. In fact, Egyptian wings the world over would be empty husks.

It is in global institutions like the British Museum, these advocates argue, that art achieves its true cosmopolitan promise. If art is for all peoples and all ages, then it’s most appropriate that it be showcased in museums featuring art made by all peoples during all ages, rather than segregated in far-flung state museums that serve narratives of glorious nationalistic pasts. Shortly after the Euphronios Krater was returned to Italy, a reporter for the New York Times noted that the bowl didn’t seem to attract many visitors in its new-old home. Is the Krater better served at the relatively little-known Cerveteri Museum where it now resides than it was at the Met, with its more than 6 million annual visitors?

But, “if really what we’re talking about is equal share for all, and a universal culture, then why isn’t there an old Dutch masters museum in Namibia?” asks Rose-Greenland, “Why isn’t the Art Institute of Chicago handing over its exquisite collection of French 19th-century watercolors to a Peruvian museum for a long-term loan?”

“Ownership necessarily betrays historical balances of power,” says James Cuno, art curator, historian, and president and CEO of the Getty Trust. But he argues that the fact that Western developed nations possess a disproportionate share of the world’s encyclopedic museums doesn’t mean that the idea of such museums is invalid. The cure isn’t fewer encyclopedic museums, but more of them, in more countries.

More problematic is another question raised by some supporters of global museums—that contemporary communities lack serious claims on objects built for and by people who lived centuries ago on the same patch of earth. The logic of this objection is that either art knows no age or national boundary, or it so grounded in its context that every other culture and era is equally without claim to it.

In his book Cosmpolitanism , Kwame Anthony Appiah argues that parsing thousands of years of human creation into categories of “yours” and “mine” isn’t easy, particularly since it can hardly be argued that the ancients were creating art with any of us in mind. He points out that the Euphronios Krater, found in and returned to Italy, was actually a Greek bowl. “Patrimony, here,” he writes, “equals imperialism plus time.”

In the case of the Parthenon Marbles, however, the suggestion that contemporary Greek people are not the legitimate heirs of Ancient Greece has a very ugly history. Elgin himself remarked that “The Greeks of today do not deserve such wonderful works of antiquity,” and “[Modern Greeks] have nothing whatsoever in common with [Ancient Greeks]. He made this claim based on the idea, popularized by the 19th-century Austrian travel writer and theorist Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer, that modern Greeks are descended from Slavs. “The race of the Hellenes has been wiped out in Europe,” he wrote in 1830. “Physical beauty, intellectual brilliance, innate harmony and simplicity, art, competition, city, village, the splendour of column and temple … [have] disappeared from the surface of the Greek continent.”

Though controversial from its inception and now debunked, Fallmerayer’s implicitly racist theory has appeared as recently as 2015 in the conservative German newspaper Die Welt , in an article in which the author argued that Greece was the perpetual demolisher of Eurozone order, from the early 19th century through austerity. He writes that Greeks are not “descendants of a Pericles or Socrates” but “a mixture of Slavs, Byzantines, and Albanians”—less worthy of a place in the European order, pretenders to admission to the EU. As if foretold in Phideas’s sculptures of the Centauromachy, the discussion has been reduced to an explicitly racist rumination on who inherits the title of civilization from the Ancient Greeks, and who is cast out as a barbarian.

The works of Phidias were completed in 432 B.C., but it might be argued that the Parthenon Marbles were created in 1687 when that shell turned the Parthenon into a husk and many of its adornments to dust. These were the sculptures that Elgin began excavating in 1801— and no one can argue that the 19th-century Greeks who watched the Parthenon defiled are unrelated to the Greeks today who clamor for their return.

The Parthenon Marbles as they are now are not the same art as the works Phidias painted and sculpted. Recreations of the works are almost jarring—their bright colors seem garish to contemporary eyes—accustomed as we are to the cool white scrubbed marble that western curators claimed showed the elegant simplicity of Ancient Greece. And of course, in the place of missing faces and limbs we project our own imaginings of the ancients, projections that have become part of the works themselves. As Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlof writes in The Sculptures of the Parthenon , “The ancient artifact naturally possesses a certain sublimity from the sheer passing of time, but also because it represents an unfilled and unfillable void.”

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IELTS Essay Task 1: Museums

by Dave | Sample Answers | 2 Comments

This is an IELTS writing task 1 sample answer essay on the topic of a bar chart showing museum admissions in London from the real IELTS exam.

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The bar chart shows the number of visitors to four London museums.

The bar chart compares attendance figures for museums in London over a period from June to December. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that only the British Museum grew in popularity, while the others saw steep or moderate declines. In terms of overall figures, the British Museum was highest and the National Museum lowest throughout.

In June, the History Museum (410,000), the British Museum (420,000) and the Science Museum (430,000) had similar figures with the National Museum the outlier at just 210,000 visitors. Through July, numbers for all museums declined gradually, with the exception of the British Museum which was stable. August saw a shift in the pattern as the History and British Museum soared to 600,000 and 710,000, respectively. The Science Museum was unchanged but National Museum admissions doubled to 380,000.

By September, figures had fallen back to 390,000 and 590,000 for the History and British Museum, in turn, while the Science Museum rose to 500,000 visitors and the National Museum dipped to 200,000. At the end of the period, the History Museum continued to fall (270,000) along with the British Museum (470,000), National Museum (190,000), and the Science Museum (300,000).

1. The bar chart compares attendance figures for museums in London over a period from June to December. 2. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that only the British Museum grew in popularity, while the others saw steep or moderate declines. 3. In terms of overall figures, the British Museum was highest and the National Museum lowest throughout.

• Paraphrase what the graph shows.
• Write a clear overview summarising the major trends and differences.
• Add an extra sentence to be sure that you have covered everything.

1. In June, the History Museum (410,000), the British Museum (420,000) and the Science Museum (430,000) had similar figures with the National Museum the outlier at just 210,000 visitors. 2. Through July, numbers for all museums declined gradually, with the exception of the British Museum which was stable. 3. August saw a shift in the pattern as the History and British Museum soared to 600,000 and 710,000, respectively. 4. The Science Museum was unchanged but National Museum admissions doubled to 380,000.

• Begin writing about the differences.
• Compare as much as possible.
• Move on to the next category to describe.
• Try to include all the data you can.

1. By September, figures had fallen back to 390,000 and 590,000 for the History and British Museum, in turn, while the Science Museum rose to 500,000 visitors and the National Museum dipped to 200,000. 2. At the end of the period, the History Museum continued to fall (270,000) along with the British Museum (470,000), National Museum (190,000), and the Science Museum (300,000).

• Write about the rest of the information.
• Make sure you have detailed all the information .

What do the words in bold below mean? Take some notes on a piece of paper to aid your memory:

The bar chart compares attendance figures for museums in London over a period from June to December. Looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that only the British Museum grew in popularity , while the others saw steep or moderate declines. In terms of overall figures, the British Museum was highest and the National Museum lowest throughout .

In June, the History Museum (410,000), the British Museum (420,000) and the Science Museum (430,000) had similar figures with the National Museum the outlier at just 210,000 visitors. Through July, numbers for all museums declined gradually , with the exception of the British Museum which was stable . August saw a shift in the pattern as the History and British Museum soared to 600,000 and 710,000, respectively . The Science Museum was unchanged but National Museum admissions doubled to 380,000.

By September, figures had fallen back to 390,000 and 590,000 for the History and British Museum, in turn, while the Science Museum rose to 500,000 visitors and the National Museum dipped to 200,000. At the end of the period , the History Museum continued to fall (270,000) along with the British Museum (470,000), National Museum (190,000), and the Science Museum (300,000).

compares shows differences between

attendance figures number of people going there

period time

looking from an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that overall

grew in popularity more people went there

steep fast, large

moderate a little

in terms of when it comes to

highest biggest

lowest throughout smallest the whole time

similar figures numbers about the same

outlier exception

through to the end of

declined gradually went down slowly

exception different from the norm

stable unchanged

shift change

pattern trend

soared rose a lot

respectively in turn

unchanged stable

doubled increased 2x

fallen back decreased after increasing before

dipped fell

at the end of the period by the end of the time surveyed

continued to fall kept decreasing

Pronunciation

kəmˈpeəz   əˈtɛndəns ˈfɪgəz   ˈpɪərɪəd   ˈlʊkɪŋ frɒm ən ˈəʊvərɔːl pəˈspɛktɪv ,  ɪt ɪz ˈrɛdɪli əˈpærənt ðæt   gruː ɪn ˌpɒpjʊˈlærɪti stiːp   ˈmɒdərɪt   ɪn tɜːmz ɒv   ˈhaɪɪst   ˈləʊɪst θru(ː)ˈaʊt ˈsɪmɪlə ˈfɪgəz   ˈaʊtˌlaɪə   θruː   dɪˈklaɪnd ˈgrædjʊəli ɪkˈsɛpʃən   ˈsteɪbl ʃɪft   ˈpætən   sɔːd   rɪsˈpɛktɪvli ʌnˈʧeɪnʤd   ˈdʌbld   ˈfɔːlən bæk   dɪpt   æt ði ɛnd ɒv ðə ˈpɪərɪəd kənˈtɪnju(ː)d tuː fɔːl  

Vocabulary Practice

Remember and fill in the blanks:

The bar chart c___________s a_______________s for museums in London over a period from June to December. L__________________________________t only the British Museum g____________________y , while the others saw s______p or m___________e declines. I_________f overall figures, the British Museum was h_______t and the National Museum l_________________t .

In June, the History Museum (410,000), the British Museum (420,000) and the Science Museum (430,000) had s_______________s with the National Museum the o__________r at just 210,000 visitors. T_________h July, numbers for all museums d________________y , with the e__________n of the British Museum which was s_______e . August saw a s______t in the p_________n as the History and British Museum s_________d to 600,000 and 710,000, r____________y . The Science Museum was u__________d but National Museum admissions d_______d to 380,000.

By September, figures had f_____________k to 390,000 and 590,000 for the History and British Museum, in turn, while the Science Museum rose to 500,000 visitors and the National Museum d_________d to 200,000. A___________________________d , the History Museum c__________________l (270,000) along with the British Museum (470,000), National Museum (190,000), and the Science Museum (300,000).

Listening Practice

Listen to the related topic below and practice with these activities :

Reading Practice

Read more and use these ideas to practice:

https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours

Speaking Practice

Practice with the following related questions from the real IELTS speaking exam:

• Should kids be taught art from a young age?
• Is it important for all people to get the opportunity to make art?
• Should art be sold or kept in museums for the public to see?
• Why is art sold for such large sums of money?
• What is the attitude to art in your country?

Writing Practice

Practice with the related graph below related to film production in 5 countries and then check with my sample answer:

IELTS Task 1 Essay: Bar Chart (Education)

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The bar chart compares attendance figures for 4 museums in London over a five-month period from June to December. The overall popularity for all museums declined over this period of time with the notable exception of the British museum in which more people went there. Furthermore, the British Museum was also the most popular apart from June. The only two groups to see no change in attendance were the British  Museum from June to July at approximately 420,000, and the Science Museum from July to August at exactly 400,000. For the other three months, the British Museum experienced a continued decrease from 720,000 in august to 460,000 at the end of the period. The trend for the History Museum was almost identical, but their numbers of visitors were always smaller as the gap widened dramatically: by 10,000 and 20,000 in the first two months, in turn, to less than 100,000 in august and 200,000 in the two final months. The science museum started at the highest point of June with 430,000 admissions, soaring to precisely 500,000 in September before a pullback to 300,000 in December. Finally, the national museum stayed at around 200,000 for the majority of the time described, remaining the least popular museum despite a peak of 380,000 in august.

Nice writing!

Really good comparison of the data and very accurate as well.

Careful with some slightly informal verbs and capitilization – otherwise really strong!

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British Museum working with National Archives to improve record-keeping

The British Museum is working with the National Archives to improve how it administers its records after an internal audit found it was “not compliant” with the Public Records Act.

The act governs the Place of Deposit system, by which archives services around the country can be appointed to preserve and provide access to public records on behalf of the Public Record Office, which is part of the National Archives.

According to the National Archives, a Place of Deposit “needs to meet basic standards of preservation, access and professional care for the type of public record held, the size of the collection and its use”.

The British Museum is recognised as a Place of Deposit for its archives and written records. The museum said in its annual report for 2023/24 that an internal audit had found that it was not compliant with the Public Records Act.

“A number of actions are currently being considered by management, who are continuing to work with the National Archives towards compliance,” says the annual report.

The British Museum has rebutted a report in The Sunday Times , subsequently picked up by other media outlets, suggesting that it had committed an offence or otherwise breached the legislation.

A museum source told Museums Journal that the media coverage misrepresented the Public Records Act.

The source said that the National Archives had provisionally accredited the British Museum under the Archive Service Accreditation, but had told the institution that there is “room for improvement in how it administers its records”. The museum is now working towards full accreditation.

The Sunday Times reported that if organisations are found to be in breach of the Public Records Act, “objects can be transferred elsewhere or handed over to the National Archives”.

The museum source said there has never been any suggestion of objects from the collection being transferred elsewhere, and that the National Archives has confirmed that the Public Records Act has no bearing on the museum’s collection.

A British Museum spokesman said: “The British Museum holds a historic archive of national significance, with a dedicated team overseeing its day to day management.

“The museum’s archive was awarded provisional accreditation by The National Archives (TNA) under the Archive Service Accreditation (ASA) Standard and is working closely with TNA to reach full accreditation.”

The British Museum has been under intense scrutiny since it announced a year ago that around 2,000 objects were damaged, missing or stolen from its collection.

The theft incident is covered in the annual report, which describes how an internal investigation highlighted “major weaknesses in the museum’s control environment related to the security of collection objects and associated records and archival material”.

The annual report also outlines the risk of reputational damage posed by “perceptions around documentation and stewardship of the collection”, which it says could affect the museum’s standing with the public, particularly internationally, and result in “reduced sponsorship and donations”.

The museum says it has introduced measures to strengthen the safety of the collection, including the complete documentation and digitisation of all unregistered material within five years, as well as changes to its governance framework.

“There is no denying that [the theft incident] was a blow for the museum, but the response has been decisive,” said chair George Osborne in a foreword to the annual report. “Following a thorough independent review into the events, the trustees accepted its recommendations in full.”

The museum has launched legal proceedings against former curator Peter Higgs in relation to the alleged thefts, which saw Roman and Greek artefacts damaged or sold online. More than 600 of the objects have since been returned to the museum in a worldwide recovery operation.

A police investigation is ongoing but no criminal charges have been brought in relation to the case.

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Exhibition fit-out company Elmwood Projects enters liquidation

Museums galleries scotland to ‘significantly scale back’ presence on x, somerset house remains closed after fire in west wing.

NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Putin rattled after Moscow ‘under attack from biggest ever drone strike’

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Moscow came under one of the largest attacks yet by Ukrainian drones since the start of fighting in 2022, further rattling Vladimir Putin as he attempts to fight Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region.

The Ministry of Defence claimed that Russia downed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight, with 11 destroyed over the Moscow region, 23 over the Bryansk region, six over Belgorod, three over Kaluga and two over Kursk.

Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel: ‘This was one of the biggest attempts of all time to attack Moscow using drones.’ 

He said strong defences around the capital made it possible to shoot down all the drones before they could hit their intended targets.

Some Russian social media channels shared videos of drones apparently being destroyed by air defence systems, which then set off car alarms.

Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, reported a ‘mass’ attack on his region but that 23 drones were destroyed.

While Ukraine has been bogged down in a land conflict in eastern Europe in which the Russians have been driving forward slowly at a heavy cost to both sides, Kyiv has also been attacking Russia with drones.

Ukraine has targeted oil refineries and airfields in an attempt to weaken Russia’s fighting potential, and has also targeted the capital several times.

The drone attacks come as Ukrainian forces are continuing to push into Russia’s western Kursk region.

The daring incursion into Russia has raised morale in Ukraine with its surprising success and changed the dynamic of the fighting.

But it is uncertain how long Ukraine will be able to hold the territory it has seized in Kursk.

It has also opened up another front in a fight where Ukrainian forces were already badly stretched.

The gains in Kursk come as Ukraine continues to lose ground in its eastern industrial region of Donbas.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, said in its daily report late on Tuesday that the Ukrainians had made additional advances in their incursion, now in its third week.

The Russian state news agency Tass reported that 31 people had died since Ukraine’s attack on Russia began on August 6, citing an unnamed source in the medical service – figures which are impossible to verify.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

MORE : Russia is urging people to stop using dating apps in areas hammered by Ukraine

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