British museum
Sad but beautiful exhibition of Afghanistan’s war rugs
Decades after its inclusion in the Hippie Trail, Afghanistan is again open to tourism, according to the Taliban’s spokesman Zabihullah…
Jam-packed with treasures: the eccentric Sir John Soane’s Museum
The delightfully higgledy-piggledy display of antiquities, filling walls from floor to ceiling, may have been inspired by the Piranesi prints Soane also collected
The jaw-dropping story of the British Museum thefts
It’s August 2023 when news breaks that artefacts have gone missing, presumed stolen, from the British Museum. I’m about an…
Fascinating insight into the mind of Michelangelo
You’re pushing 60 and an important patron asks you to repeat an artistic feat you accomplished in your thirties. There’s…
How Damien Hirst ruined Devon
There are few better locations to resist la rentrée than the wilds of Exmoor. The late August heather and gorse.…
George Osborne’s midlife crisis
There should be a term in anthropology for what happens to a certain type of Tory male in middle age.…
The 19th century Chinese craze for all things European
By the 1800s, the mechanical clock had become a status symbol for wealthy Chinese. The first arrived with Jesuit missionaries…
British Museum keeps the Chinese golden era alive
It’s been a bit of a bad week for the British Museum. High temperatures forced staff to close the site…
A mess: British Museum's Feminine Power – the Divine to the Demonic reviewed
The point at which the heart sinks in this exhibition is, unfortunately, right at the outset. That’s where we meet…
Stupendous: The World of Stonehenge at the British Museum reviewed
Christopher Howse is bowled over by the astonishingartefacts in the British Museum’s Stonehenge exhibition
A show of ample and eerie majesty: British Museum's Peru: A Journey in Time reviewed
Growing up on a farm outside Lima, I was aware that indigenous Peruvians did not understand time in the same…
Who really owns the Benin Bronzes?
Should the British Museum return its priceless collection of Benin Bronzes? For years, the museum has stood firm in its…
A nicer side of Nero
New York I haven’t felt such shirt-dripping, mind-clogging wet heat since Saigon back in 1971. The Bagel is a steam…
Why Thomas Becket still divides opinion
The verdict is still out on Thomas Becket, says Dan Hitchens, but there’s no doubting the brilliance of the art he inspired
The problem of the Benin Bronzes will never go away
A book about the looted African art known as the Benin Bronzes begins by clarifying that most of them are…
The distortion of British history
The British Museum has announced the appointment of a curator to study the history of its own collections. On the…
Our love affair with the Anglo-Saxons
Dan Hitchens on our love affair with the Anglo-Saxons
These rediscovered drawings by Hokusai are extraordinary
These rediscovered drawings by Hokusai point to him as the father of photography and modern animation, says Laura Gascoigne
Spectacular and mind-expanding: Tantra at the British Museum reviewed
A great temple of the goddess Tara can be found at Tarapith in West Bengal. But her true abode, in…
Museums need wonder, not wokery
The British Museum’s aim is to use its collection ‘for the benefit and education of humanity’. If that manifests itself…
In defence of Hans Sloane
‘The British Museum stands in solidarity with the British Black community, with the African American community, with the Black community…
Strange, sinister and very Belgian: Léon Spilliaert at the Royal Academy reviewed
The strange and faintly sinister works of the Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert have been compared — not unreasonably — to…
What really happened at Troy?
Heinrich Schliemann had always hoped he’d find Homer’s Troy. Although he had no archaeological background to speak of, he did…
