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British Museum

Name: British Museum
Address: London, WC1B3DG, GB
Telephone: +442073238000
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A museum of the world, for the world. Discover over two million years of human history and culture.

Operating as usual

01/12/2022

Our newly announced tells a story about how Persian, Greek and Hellenistic luxuries shaped the political landscape of Europe and Asia in the first millennium BC – leaving a legacy that persists in our attitudes to luxury today.

The show will explore how the royal Achaemenid court of Persia used precious objects as markers of authority, and how these eastern luxuries were received in early democratic Athens, self-styled as Persia’s arch-enemy.

Finally, the exhibition will examine how Alexander the Great swept aside the Persian empire to usher in a new Hellenistic age in which eastern and western styles of luxury were fused as part of an increasingly interconnected world.

Whether coveted as objects of prestige or disparaged as signs of decadence, the show features star loans as well as objects from the collection, bringing together exquisitely crafted objects in gold, silver and glass ✨

‘Luxury and power: Persia to Greece’ opens 4 May 2023.

Book now and take advantage of our early bird offer to save at least 20% on your tickets – no code needed: http://ow.ly/pz7N50LS7cx

Supported by American Friends of the British Museum

With additional support from Julie and Stephen Fitzgerald

🔎 Gilt silver rhyton with winged griffin, Turkey, 5th century BC. Read more: http://ow.ly/wIRK50LQ9eG

29/11/2022

This we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported the Museum this year.

Your generous support is invaluable in helping us care for, research and share the collection.

Donations have an immediate impact by making the inspirational work of our curators, conservators, scientists and educators possible.

Members’ contributions and donations have been a lifeline that will continue to have a major impact in the years ahead – we’re so grateful for your support.

And of course, thank you to our wonderful volunteers who support the Museum in almost every area of activity, both behind the scenes and front of house.

Find out more about ways in which you can support the Museum below 👇

Support us: http://ow.ly/JWgG50LQg5j
Volunteer: http://ow.ly/g76J50LQghx
Become a Member: http://ow.ly/72jH50LQge0

28/11/2022

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 🐯

William Blake was born in 1757.

A poet, printmaker and painter, some of Blake’s best-known artistic work combines his poetry with beautiful illustrations. This page is from his work ‘Songs of Experience’ and contains his famous poem 'The Tyger'.

🔍 William Blake (1757–1827). ‘The Tyger’. Hand coloured relief etching, 1794. Read more: http://ow.ly/ZfIM50LOIwJ

27/11/2022

These intricate rings offer just as much substance as style ✨

Thumb rings have been used by archers for thousands of years to take the strain of the cords and bows as they drew them. They were originally designed both to release the arrow with accuracy, and to prevent injuries 🏹

These examples are made from bronze, gold, jade and bone – some of which are inlaid with precious stones such as rubies and emeralds, engraved with inscriptions and intricate designs. They range from 960 AD to the 18th century, and span Italy, India and China.

Thumb rings also served as status symbols when offered by the ruler as tokens of appreciation in Islamic courts. Featured in numerous miniature paintings both in use and worn dangling from a belt, such rings suggested the wearer’s close ties to the throne.

🔎 Gold signet ring in the form of a bow ring. Engraved with inscription and pearled border. Venice, Italy, 14th century. Read more: http://ow.ly/jFns50LNagV

🔎 Finger ring made of jade, inlaid with gold and inset with rubies and emeralds. India, 18th century. Read more: http://ow.ly/oFfR50LNacb

🔎 Archer’s thumb ring made of jade. China, around 960–1368. Read more: http://ow.ly/Crtc50LNaIv

🔎 Finger ring made of bone, thickly set with small rods of wire. India, 18th century. Read more: http://ow.ly/45bz50LNa6Y

26/11/2022

It’s 🌿

The story of olive oil starts around 6000 BC, when people in the eastern Mediterranean learned how to extract oil from the bitter fruit growing on wild olive trees.

By 5000 BC, people were cultivating domestic trees in orchards. Olive oil quickly transformed the way people lived: it was burned as fuel in lamps, it helped preserve food longer, especially dairy products such as yoghurt and cheese, and it enabled a broad cuisine to flourish, providing the foundations of what we know today as the 'Mediterranean diet'.

Read more about the origins of olive oil here: http://ow.ly/nNMP50LNAfF

This amphora depicts the olive harvest in Greece. Sat among the branches, a man shakes the olives loose from the tree, while two bearded figures beat the tree with sticks. Between them, a young man places the fallen olives into a basket.

🔍 Scene depicting the olive harvest in Greece by the Antimenes Painter. Attic black-figure amphora, Greece, about 520 BC. Read more: http://ow.ly/mZr450LNA6M

25/11/2022

The ancient Egyptian animal kingdom 🦉

Inspired by vibrant glazed figures in the collection, these miniature mementos are all available in our online shop 🛍

🦛 Hippos were identified with the Goddess Taweret, who was believed to bring luck and protection in childbirth, and with Seth, the god of storms.

🐈 In ancient Egypt the cat was the sacred animal of the goddess Bastet, who was associated with fertility and the life-giving properties of the sun.

🐻 The Egyptian god of fertility, Bes, was believed to drive away evil. Ornaments of the god were often placed around the home to protect the inhabitants and bring happiness.

🐞 In ancient Egypt, scarabs (dung beetles) represented the rising sun and eternal existence. This is because the insect is often seen pushing balls of dung up hills, and Egyptians believed the sun was propelled around the earth in the same way – driven by a giant beetle.

Enjoy 20% off your entire purchase when you spend over £30 in our online shop. Enter the code BMBF22 at checkout – valid until midnight on Monday 28 November: http://ow.ly/lPUG50LNyub

18/11/2022

Within this beautiful drawing lies an uncomfortable truth.

Made by Vietnamese-American artist Tiffany Chung, this work is taken from a series of 40 hand-drawn maps.

They trace the humanitarian crisis in Syria from 2011 – made using statistical data, they show the mass movement of people toward Europe.

Their beauty completely at odds with the shocking realities they represent, Chung has described her maps as ‘traps’: attracting viewers with their delicacy and then confronting them with difficult subjects and uncomfortable truths.

You can see Chung’s work in our latest free display – ‘Art on paper since 1960: the Hamish Parker collection’.

In 2020 the Museum received a generous gift of about 150 works of art on paper from the private collection of Hamish Parker, a long-term supporter of the Museum – this exhibition presents a selection of these works.

From Lucian Freud to Kiki Smith, life drawing to minimalism, and etching to collage, the display spans an intriguing range of styles and techniques used in art on paper from 1960 to today.

🏛 ‘Art on paper since 1960: the Hamish Parker collection’ is on display in Room 90 until 25 March 2023. Find out more and plan your visit: http://ow.ly/g5qf50LwErf

🔍 Tiffany Chung (b.1969) ‘UNHCR Red Dot Series – tracking the Syrian Humanitarian Crisis: April – December 2012, 2014–2015’. Nine drawings in oil and ink on vellum and paper. Courtesy of the artist and Tyler Rollins Fine Art. Read more: http://ow.ly/HAAu50LwExF

17/11/2022

Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558.

This incredibly rare silver medal shows an elaborate portrait of Elizabeth as Queen 👑

She’s shown in Tudor dress – wearing a lace ruff, a tight bodice, and fantastic jewels. On her head sits the Tudor Crown, which breaks into the Latin inscription ‘No circle in the world is richer’.

The reverse of the medal shows a lone island with a single tree growing on it – a bay tree – amidst a thundering storm. Bay trees were thought to be unaffected by lightning, as depicted here.

Underneath the tree is a message, ‘Not even danger affects it’, mirroring the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This medal was made when the greatest dangers to Elizabeth’s rule had ceased. It was created shortly after the defeat of the Spanish Armada and when Mary, Queen of Scots had been killed.

The medal was designed by Nicholas Hilliard who was the great court artist during Elizabeth’s reign.

🔎 Silver medal showing the bust of Queen Elizabeth I. British Isles, 1589. Read more: http://ow.ly/B1Sp50LwBKg

16/11/2022

How to accessorise in the late 4th century ✨

This spectacular body chain made of gold and adorned with precious stones is part of the Hoxne Hoard which was found in Suffolk, eastern England, 30 years ago in 1992.

🖼 Body chains like this can often be seen in Hellenistic and Roman art, but actual examples are extremely rare.

👧 The size of the chain indicates that it was worn by a slender woman or adolescent girl.

⛓ It’s formed of four joined chains – passing over the shoulders and under the arms of the wearer, and crossing at the front and back.

💰The mounted gold coin shows Gratian, emperor of the Western Roman Empire from AD 367–383.

The Hoxne Hoard is one of the richest finds of treasure from Roman Britain, and consists of over 15,000 gold and silver coins, gold jewellery – like this example – and numerous small items of silver tableware.

🏛 See the hoard on display in Room 49 – The Weston Gallery of Roman Britain – on your next visit: http://ow.ly/vaI850LwuA3

🔎 Gold body-chain with coin-set clasp and jewelled mount. Romano-British, Hoxne, Suffolk. Read more: http://ow.ly/ZHj450Lwuuj

15/11/2022

Can you solve ancient Egyptian arithmetic?

In each of seven houses there are seven cats 🐱

Each cat catches seven mice 🐭

Each mouse eats seven ears of corn 🌽

Each ear of corn, if sown, produces seven gallons of grain 🌾

How many things are mentioned in total?

We’ll be revealing the answer in 5 hours ⏱

The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus is an ancient textbook with 88 mathematical problems.

Each starts with a ‘method of calculating’, written in red, with the steps and solution following in black, used by scribes to learn and solve particular mathematical problems.

You can see the papyrus on display in our , unlocking one of the world’s oldest civilisations through hieroglyphic inscriptions and ancient handwriting. Book your tickets here: http://ow.ly/fXHf50LCnYg

🔍 The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. Thebes, Upper Egypt, 1550 BC. Read more: http://ow.ly/InXr50LCoru

13/11/2022

Take a look at this scroll and transport yourself to places new 🗻

This landscape painting is attributed to the artist Kenkō Shōkei (active between 1478–1506), and was completed in about 1500. Using lively brushwork, the artist takes the viewer on a journey up a winding path to a temple hidden in the pale blue-wash mountains.

Look closely. Can you spot:
🐎 Someone riding a mule
🧺 A man transporting goods
🚶‍♂‍ An elderly man climbing the path
⛩ A temple along the zig-zagging road

You can see this scroll alongside 60 newly displayed objects from the Museum’s Japanese collection until April 2023 in Rooms 92–94 – The Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries: http://ow.ly/HThx50LtiVB

🔎 Painted hanging scroll of a mountainous landscape, ink and light colours on paper. Attributed to Kenkō Shōkei, about 1500, Japan. http://ow.ly/1mSX50Ltjnu

11/11/2022

For , here is a red poppy made by British artist Mary Delany in 1779.

Former Museum Keeper Laurence Binyon wrote the words of the ‘Ode of Remembrance’, which are inscribed on our War Memorial:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”

The Museum will observe the two-minute silence today at 11.00, and again on Remembrance Sunday.

🔎 Mary Delany (1700–1788), ‘Papaver Rheus (Common Corn Poppy)’. Collage of coloured papers, with bodycolour and watercolour, on black ink background, 1779. Read more: http://ow.ly/uZHJ30rh1c2

09/11/2022

Do you recognise any of these places?

These landmark locations were captured in watercolour by English artist Thomas Girtin, who died in 1802, aged just 27.

A friend and rival of J.M.W. Turner, Girtin played a key role in establishing watercolour as a reputable art form.

Girtin was apprenticed at the age of 14, and by the age of 19 he was exhibiting at London's Royal Academy.

07/11/2022

🍂 Crunchy leaves, bare trees, and a chilly breeze in the air 🍂

This atmospheric watercolour of a Welsh wood captures the beautiful colours of autumn, just as the day turns to evening, and the sky becomes a soft pink.

The artist, James Thomas Watts, was deeply influenced by the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. He was fascinated by the play of light and concentrated on depicting wooded landscapes at varying times of the year and times of the day 🌳🌲🌳

🔎 James Thomas Watts (1850–1930), ‘November evening in a welsh wood’. Watercolour with scratching out, c. 1885–1895. Read more: http://ow.ly/W2mt30rjwWs

06/11/2022

Reacting to the Iraq War of 2003, Syrian artist Issam Kourbaj created this work from the pages of a fragmentary old book.

Graffiti, X-rays, words and Arabic songs emerge out of the yellowing paper evoking notions of fragility during wartime.

As though tossed up into the air, the wreckage of the book also symbolises for Kourbaj the dramatic destruction of the National Library of Baghdad that took place in that year.

You can see this work in our latest free display, ‘Artists making books: poetry to politics’ on display in Room 43a until 17 September 2023: http://ow.ly/mav450Lto1O

Whether subverting, inverting, celebrating or exploding, this intriguing and powerful display explores the history of artists taking on the medium of books and the influences that inform their work.

Works made by artists from New York to Damascus and beyond will highlight the relationship between artists and poets and the influences that inform their work, from family to politics and everything in between.

Find out more and plan your visit: http://ow.ly/mav450Lto1O

🔎 Issam Kourbaj (b. 1963), 'Sound Palimpsest'. Mixed media on second-hand book fragments, 2003. Reproduced by permission of the artist. Read more: http://ow.ly/CZx250Ltoiv

05/11/2022

“Remember, remember the fifth of November, the Gunpowder, Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.”

Tonight is in the UK! 🔥🍂

🃏 These late-17th-century playing cards illustrate the Gunpowder Plot – a plan to assassinate King James (VI of Scotland, I of England) by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder – and how it was foiled.

Guy Fawkes, one of the plotters, was arrested while guarding explosives underneath the House of Lords in 1605.

🔎 Playing-cards depicting the events of the Gunpowder Plot. Etching, 1679. Read more: http://ow.ly/F0BR50LqV7q

04/11/2022

Don’t want to spoil your new shoes? Well, how’s this for a historic life-hack… 👠

This ladies’ shoe is over 400 years old, and is an incredibly rare survival from Jacobean England.

Made around 1610, the square-toed high-heel shoe is crafted from kid leather. Entirely hand-sewn, the perforations on the top of the shoe suggest a large bow or rose was once attached. The shoe itself was likely white in colour originally – a fashionable choice for women in high society at the time.

To protect these expensive shoes from damage, a galosh or overshoe would be worn.

The toe of the shoe would slip into the galosh (made here of wood, leather and silk), and the extended sole would slap against the heel of the inserted shoe as the wearer walked. This stopped ladies’ heels sinking into the mud while out-and-about.

🔎 Leather shoe with clog-soled overshoe or galosh. England, about 1610. Read more: http://ow.ly/kgxx50LqLm5

02/11/2022

Celebrated over three days around the start of November, the is a Mexican holiday where the dead are remembered with theatrical processions, offerings of food, and the decorating of graves 💀

It also portrays a ‘world turned upside down’, subverting hierarchies and mocking authority figures and class-based commentaries.

This papier mâché skeleton caricature shows a corrupt factory owner who enjoys immense wealth while his poorly paid workers toil away in appalling conditions.

The subjects made into papier mâché figures are chosen to reflect both contemporary politics and local concerns.

🔎 Day of the Dead figure of a factory owner by Pablo Morales, Mexico, 1980s. Read more: http://ow.ly/kIl350LqFym

01/11/2022

Made from diamonds, pearls, rubies, and spinels, jewelled crosses like this one were worn by Georgian noblewomen in the decades around 1800 ✨

Their form echoes the famous golden reliquary cross adorned with emeralds, rubies, and pearls associated with Queen Tamar (r. 1184–1213), who was the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right.

In summer 1919, Oliver Wardrop (1864–1948) returned to Tbilisi, having been appointed British High Commissioner there. In the 30 years since his first visit, Wardrop had mastered Georgian, translated Kartvelian poetry, and named his daughter Nino after the saint credited with introducing the kingdom of Kartli to Christianity.

A delegation of Georgian women visited Wardrop in 1920, accompanied by girls dressed in the red and white of the banner of St George (Georgia’s patron). The children presented him with this sparkling heirloom as a gift for his young daughter, Nino.

This ornate cross pendant was donated to the Museum by Nino Wardrop in 1983.

🏛 See this beautiful object on display in Room 2a of the Museum – The Waddesdon Bequest: http://ow.ly/lCrs50LiV9w

🔎 Diamonds, pearls, rubies, spinels and enamelled gold reliquary. Probably Tbilisi, Georgia, about 1800. Read more: http://ow.ly/MXzM50LiV7p Georgia in the UK

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Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
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Sunday	10am - 5pm

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