Category Archives: British Museum

Pompeii Live: they didn’t see catastrophe coming – and neither did we

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The British Museum has resurrected its blockbuster show about the deadly volcanic eruption. In the age of coronavirus, it’s more chilling and vital than ever

In AD 79, a society that thought it was modern, sophisticated and fully in control of its destiny was taught otherwise by nature. Sounds familiar? The eruption of Vesuvius that overwhelmed Pompeii, Herculaneum and many villas dotted around the Bay of Naples caught the Roman empire by surprise. The parallels with the coronavirus crisis are uncanny. So the British Museum’s release this week of Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, an online tour of its harrowing 2013 blockbuster show, offers a troubling gaze into history’s mirror.

Related: Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum – review

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British Museum looks to crack mystery over decorated ostrich eggs

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Experts reexamine eggs – some dating back to bronze age – to understand origins and designs

They are about the same size as a standard Easter egg, but are rather older – with some specimens dating back five millennia to the early bronze age.

A collection of decorated ostrich eggs belonging to the British Museum in London has been reexamined by experts in an effort to understand where they originated, and how their often elaborately painted or engraved designs were created.

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Covid-19 prompts all major British theatres to close doors

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Fifty London theatres and 250 throughout UK to close, says industry body

All major British theatre will cease and several cultural institutions will close or postpone shows as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the UK’s arts and culture sector grows following the government’s call for “drastic action” to halt its spread.

The Society of London Theatre (Solt) and UK Theatre, the industry body that represents nearly every British theatre, announced that, as of Monday night, all its members would close their doors. The groups represent about 50 London theatres and almost 250 others throughout the UK.

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Pick up truck crashes into Easter Island sacred stone statue – video

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A Chilean man was arrested after he drove a truck into one of the famous Easter Island statues and toppled it. The mayor of Easter Island has called for vehicle restrictions to be introduced around its archaeological sites after the truck caused 'incalculable' damage

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Anger on Easter Island after truck crashes into sacred stone statue

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Mayor calls for vehicle restrictions around famous structures after Chilean man causes ‘incalculable’ damage

The mayor of Easter Island has called for vehicle restrictions to be introduced around its archaeological sites after a pickup truck hit one of the famous stone statues, causing “incalculable” damage.

A Chilean man who lives on the island, in Polynesia, was arrested after the incident on Sunday and has been charged with damaging a national monument, according to the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio de Valparaíso. The platform on which the statue stood was also damaged in the crash, it reported.

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Activists try to occupy British Museum in protest against BP ties

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Environmental group puts pressure on museum to end its partnership with oil company

Dozens of activists have coated themselves in plaster and are trying to occupy the British Museum overnight in a bid to pressure the institution to cut ties with oil corporation BP.

About 60 protesters were taking part in the defiant act of impromptu sculpture making as the museum in London attempted to close its doors at 5pm on Saturday.

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Devon museum in repatriation dispute over indigenous relics

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Efforts to recover the 19th-century regalia of a Blackfoot Nation leader began in 2008

A British museum is resisting attempts from Canada to secure the repatriation of sacred relics of a 19th-century indigenous chief because the centre where his descendants want to locate them is not an accredited museum, but the final decision lies with local councillors in England.

In an increasingly acrimonious dispute, backers of the campaign to repatriate regalia belonging to Crowfoot of the Blackfoot Nation were told by officials at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter that “no one wants to get their hands dirty” when it came to the sensitive question of repatriating looted artefacts held in UK arts institutions.

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British Museum is world’s largest receiver of stolen goods, says QC

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Geoffrey Robertson says it should ‘wash its hands of blood and return Elgin’s loot’

The British Museum has been accused of exhibiting “pilfered cultural property”, by a leading human rights lawyer who is calling for European and US institutions to return treasures taken from “subjugated peoples” by “conquerors or colonial masters”.

Geoffrey Robertson QC said: “The trustees of the British Museum have become the world’s largest receivers of stolen property, and the great majority of their loot is not even on public display.”

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British Museum to return Buddhist heads looted in Afghan war

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Stolen artefacts likely removed by Taliban will go on display before being sent to Kabul

Fourth-century Buddhist terracotta heads probably hacked off by the Taliban and found stuffed in poorly made wooden crates at Heathrow are to be returned to Afghanistan where they will be star museum exhibits.

The British Museum gave details on Monday of one of the most significant repatriation cases it has dealt with relating to the illegal looting of artefacts from Afghanistan and Iraq.

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British Museum ‘has head in sand’ over return of artefacts

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Authors of major report accuse institution of hiding from issue of looted colonial-era objects

The authors of an influential report on colonial-era artefacts, which recommended a restitution programme to transfer hundreds of items from European institutions to Africa, have criticised the British Museum for acting like “an ostrich with its head in the sand”.

The Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and the French art historian Bénédicte Savoy, who were asked to write the report by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, after he said the return of artefacts would be a priority during his tenure, said the British Museum was not addressing the issue.

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Easter Islanders call for return of statue from British Museum

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Museum delegation to discuss preservation of island’s statues but indigenous tribes say they want Hoa Hakananai’a back

A delegation from the British Museum will arrive on Easter Island on Tuesday aiming to discuss how to help preserve more than 1,000 of the island’s renowned statues.

Rapa Nui leaders will introduce their visitors to their culture – but they also want to talk about the possible return of the world-famous statue that has stood in pride of place in the museum’s Wellcome gallery for the last 150 years.

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Easter Island looks for help to save statues from ‘leprosy’

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White spots eating away at the sculptures are softening them to a clay-like consistency and deforming their features

Within a century the emblematic stone figures that guard remote Easter Island could be little more than weathered rectangular blocks, conservation experts are warning – but Britain could be part of the fix.

The giant heads, carved centuries ago by the island’s inhabitants, represent the living ancestors of Easter Island’s Polynesian people – the Rapa Nui – and have brought it Unesco world heritage site status in its Pacific location more than 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile.

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Norway’s favourite painting to go on display in London

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Winter Night in the Mountains part of first Harald Sohlberg show outside Norway

Edvard Munch’s The Scream is a classic symbol of dread that has been hailed as the ultimate icon of contemporary politics – but a very different Norwegian painting is the country’s favourite.

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