British Museum
The British Museum is a museum located in London. Its permanant collection includes almost 8 million artefacts, making it one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the world.
The museum is contraversial, due to many of the items in the collection having been looted during British colonial expansion, or simply stolen, as in the case of the Elgin Marbles. While some items could not currently be repatriated, due to fragility, a lack of facilities to hold the items, or a lack of a public body in the source country to take ownership, the museum has historically refused to consider repatriation even for items which could be safely returned, such as the Rosetta Stone.
The Museum governors are currently in talks with King T'Challa to return a number of items which have been proved to be Wakandan in origin. Activists and historians hope that, if successful, this landmark decision would pave the way for more repatriation claims to be considered.
In 2014, the museum was attacked by former CIA opperative Erik Killmonger and wanted criminal Ulysses Klaue, who stole a number of African artefacts, and killed six security guards during their escape.
History
The Museum was founded in 1753, from the personal collection of Sir Hans Sloan. It opened to the public in 1759, making it the first public national museum in the world. Over the following 250 years it expanded, and now has several branch institutions, the first being the Natural History Museum.
The British Library was originally part of the British Museum, but was sepperated by an act of parliament in 1972, although they continued to share a building until 1997.
Tourism
In 2019, the museum recieved 1,275,400 visitors, making it the most visited museum in the UK.
Type
Museum
Parent Location