British Museum

The British museum in London is the most important and one of the world’s largest museum. It is a museum of culture and human history. It was established in 1973 and was largely based on the collections of physician and scientist sir Hans Sloane. It was first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu house in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building.

Its collections are more than seven billion objects from all continents. Due to lack of space many of the artifacts are stored underneath. It doesn’t contain entry fee like other art galleries and main museums. Only for some special exhibitions entry fee is charged. The present director is Neil Macgregor and chairman is sir John Boyd. The museum collections had increased so that the building was not enough for them. The museum was founded 250 years ago as an encyclopedia of art and nature. The departments of roman and Greek antiquities of the British museum have one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collections of antiquities from the classical world, with 10,000 objects. In 19th century the collection of sculpture began to be laid. The department of the British library provided space needed for the books. The departments of drawings and prints hold the national collection of western prints and drawings. British museum houses one of the worlds greatest collection of Ethnographic material from Africa, Americas and Oceania. It represents the cultures of indigenous people through out the world. British museum also contains the departments of coins and medals, prehistory, conservation, documentation and science etc.