British museum

How Damien Hirst ruined Devon

2 September 2023 9:00 am

There are few better locations to resist la rentrée than the wilds of Exmoor. The late August heather and gorse.…

Portrait of the Week

2 September 2023 9:00 am

George Osborne’s midlife crisis

2 September 2023 9:00 am

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

10 June 2023 9:00 am

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

21 July 2022 11:35 pm

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

4 June 2022 9:00 am

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

19 February 2022 9:00 am

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

11 December 2021 9:00 am

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?

5 September 2021 3:30 pm

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

19 June 2021 9:00 am

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

22 May 2021 9:00 am

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

24 April 2021 9:00 am

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

20 February 2021 7:00 pm

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

20 February 2021 9:00 am

Dan Hitchens on our love affair with the Anglo-Saxons

These rediscovered drawings by Hokusai are extraordinary

13 February 2021 9:00 am

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

3 October 2020 9:00 am

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

5 September 2020 9:00 am

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

29 August 2020 9:00 am

‘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

29 February 2020 9:00 am

The strange and faintly sinister works of the Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert have been compared — not unreasonably — to…

What really happened at Troy?

16 November 2019 9:00 am

Heinrich Schliemann had always hoped he’d find Homer’s Troy. Although he had no archaeological background to speak of, he did…

Tat Britain: Museum gift shops are naff – but necessary

19 October 2019 9:00 am

Exit through the gift shop. Pick up a postcard, a magnet, a novelty eggcup in the shape of Queen Elizabeth…

All money is dirty – but it can still be used for good

3 August 2019 9:00 am

Whitney museum: no space for profiteers of state violence // dismantle patriarchy // warren kanders must go! // supreme injustice…

‘Head by Head’, 1905, by Edvard Munch

Absorbing – a masterclass in print-making: Edvard Munch at the British Museum reviewed

13 April 2019 9:00 am

An eyewitness described Edvard Munch supervising the print of a colour lithograph in 1896. He stood in front of the…

Ivory plaque of a lioness mauling a man, ivory, gold, cornelian, lapis lazuli, Nimrud, 900 BC–700 BC. [© The Trustees of the British Museum]

The Assyrians of Ashurbanipal’s time were just as into pillage and destruction as Isis

1 December 2018 9:00 am

The Assyrians placed sculptures of winged human-headed bulls (lamassus) at the entrances to their capital at Nineveh, in modern Mosul,…