Large Assyrian stone sculptures of mythological guardian figures now in the British Museum
From Wikipedia: The British Museum in London is one of the world's largest and most important museums of human history and culture. It was established in 1753 and was based largely on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. The British Museum is home to over seven million objects from all continents illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. Many of the artifacts are stored underneath the museum due to lack of space. The present chairman is Sir John Boyd and its director is Neil MacGregor. The British Museum, like the other main museums and art galleries in Britain, charges no admission fee. Admission charges, however, are levied for some temporary special exhibitions. The British Museum offers a range of learning experiences for everyone including schools, families and adults, one of which is a Postgraduate Diploma that focuses on the classical and decorative arts of Asia. Though principally a museum of cultural art objects and antiquities, today, the British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". This is reflected in the first bequest by Sir Hans Sloane, comprising some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens, prints by Albrecht Dürer and antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Middle and Far East and the Americas. The Foundation Act, passed on 7 June 1753, added two other libraries to the Sloane collection. The Cottonian Library, assembled by Sir Robert Cotton, dated back to Elizabethan times and the Harleian library was the collection of the first and second Earls of Oxford. They were joined in 1757 by the Royal Library assembled by various British monarchs. Together these four "Foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library, including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the
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Photo credit: © Beren Patterson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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