Gallery

The British Museum

The British Museum located in London holds finest collection of art works in London. There are more than 7 million objects and is the largest and diverse museum in world with art works from all continents that illustrate and document the story behind human culture from earlier to present. The British Museum was built during the year 1739, based on collections from Sir Hans Sloane, a famous scientist as well as physician.

The museum was opened to the public on Jan 15 1759 in Bloomsbury, along site with the present museum building. The expansion of building over 2 and ½ centuries has created many branch institutions, out of which the 1^st is British Museum in South Kensington in the year 1887. Some famous objects present in collection including Elgin Marbles from Parthenon are objects involving controversy and calls for return from the originating countries.

Till the year 1997, the British Library which was centered previously in Round Reading room was moved to new site and the British Museum was very unique that it housed a national antique museum and several other museums in same building along with national library. The museum is public body which is sponsored by the Department of Sport, Media and Culture and with other national museums in UK without any admission fee. Neil MacGregor has been the museum director since the year 2001.

Though the museum is principally made of cultural art objects and many antiques at present, the Museum was initially designed as Universal Museum. The foundations of the museums lies in will of naturalist Sir Hans Sloane. His collection had more than 71,000 objects of various kinds which include 7,000 manuscripts, 40, 000 printed books extensive natural history and specimens which include three hundred and thirty seven volumes of dried plants, drawings and prints which includes the drawings of Albert Durer and many antiques from Rome. It also houses the largest and most extensive collection of antiques for Egypt outside Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The Department of Roman and Greek Antiquities of British Museum has the largest and most extensive collection of antiquities from Classical world, containing more than 1, 00 0,000 objects. They usually range in date from time of Greek Bronze Age to reign of Roman Emperor Constantine I in fourth century AD, with some survivals. With more than 330,000 objects as collection, British Museum has wide collection of Mesopotamian antiquities in Iraq. The holding of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities are greatest in world.