The British Museum

We were delighted to host John Osawe and Joshua Dominic from the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), who visited us recently to exchange learning on programme design, community engagement and institutional collaboration.  They presented on MOWAA’s brilliant community outreach programme, which includes the ‘Unearth’ Fellowship. Unearth provides early-career professionals and postgraduate students the opportunity to engage in groundbreaking research and preservation work, in partnership with the British Museum and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments.  As John and Joshua recounted, their work on education and public programmes at MOWAA is proving successful in getting young Nigerians interested in heritage management, archaeology and culture, and could provide a model for other institutions to follow.   

The Tudor Heart is one of the most spectacular pieces of English history. Found in December 2019 by a detectorist in Warwickshire, the heart-shaped pendant and necklace are associated with Henry VIII and his first wife and queen, Katherine of Aragon. Few objects from this period that tell the tale of Henry’s relationship with Katherine during their 24-year-long marriage remain, making it a historical treasure. We are deeply grateful to The Julia Rausing Trust for their generous lead donation of £500,000, which will bring us closer to acquiring the Tudor Heart for the nation. Learn more about how you can help support the Tudor Heart appeal: https://lnkd.in/e7NMpe_J

"I wish it a very happy 100th birthday today. And I look forward to what the next hundred years will bring," said Nicholas Cullinan, director of The British Museum On Oct. 10th, the Palace Museum marked its centenary, as Cullinan visited Beijing to attend the 7th Taihe Forum.

Not often that you get to rehearse in an empty The British Museum Preparing for our Beowulf Live this Friday as part of the BM young people late program. https://lnkd.in/eSxAX3-f We've be on at 18:30 and 19:30 working alongside The Haestingas #sitespecific

This Roman coin from AD 223, known as a sestertius, offers a glimpse of one of the empire’s most iconic landmarks — the Colosseum. Also called the Flavian Amphitheatre, it opened in AD 80 and was the largest arena in the Roman world. ⚔️ If you look closely, you can see the coin's detailed engraving shows the Colosseum’s towering arcades that shaded spectators from the sun. Inside, two gladiators are locked in combat — a nod to the legendary but brutal spectacles once held there. And here in Britain? Chester’s Roman amphitheatre is the largest ever found in the UK — a local taste of epic Roman entertainment. This coin is on display as part of the Gladiators of Britain touring exhibition in partnership with Colchester and Ipswich Museums, now at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester until 25 January. We aim to share the British Museum collection as widely as possible across the UK. Last year, around eight million people saw a British Museum object outside of London. Find out more about our national partnerships here: https://lnkd.in/eeUnF4va 📸Stuart Robinson

While we can’t tell you everything the future holds… we can give you a glimpse of the amazing things coming to the British Museum in the next year... Explore the ocean-crossing artistry of Hawaiʻi, the shifting history of the samurai, and the medieval mastery of the Bayeux Tapestry in our special ticketed exhibitions... …And dive into everything from Italian Renaissance woodcuts to contemporary Nordic art, along with the fascinating stories of Sufi art and the Asante ewer – in our free displays Discover our full programme – including shows touring around the UK- https://lnkd.in/ehvz_kiM 

Looking back at the conservation and mounting of this huge hanging scroll, a copy of a mural painting from the Hōryūji temple in Japan depicting the Pure Land of Miroku. It’s recently been back on display in the exhibition Ancient India for only the second time ever.   For over 130 years the painting copy on extremely thin paper was safely stored folded up in an A3 paper folder. It was brought to the Hirayama Conservation Studio in 2017 to find a way to display it safely.  A traditional hanging scroll format was chosen, but due to its size (3.1m x 2.6m) the Hirayama team, with the help of conservators from the Association for Conservation of National Treasures in Japan, had to adapt traditional scroll mounting techniques and materials to save on weight and facilitate the conservation treatment. For example, a long platform (normally used in theatres) was purchased to enable the conservators to reach the central areas during the lining treatment. And a titanium tube was used for the scroll’s bottom roller instead of solid wood, saving 10kg on the final weight! We also used a pulley system to install this huge hanging scroll in the gallery, which we wouldn’t need for smaller scrolls.  If you want to learn more about the history of this object and its conservation, see this video: https://lnkd.in/eDtiY-xS This work was part of the Collaborative Project for the Conservation of Japanese Paintings in the British Museum, together with the Association for Conservation of National Treasures of Japan and supported by the Sumitomo Foundation.