British Museum

9/11archive

Plans for Iran exhibition at British Museum shelved as sponsor withdraws in aftermath of Twin Tower bombings

The exhibition, which would have highlighted the creative flourishing facilitated by members of Iranian royalty, may still become a reality in 2004 or 2005

Tatearchive

One-way transfer of 19th-century works from Tate to British Museum planned

All 19th-century European drawings and watercolours in the Tate’s collection will be loaned to the BM, with the possibility of transferring ownership entirely

Parthenonarchive

Campaign for Parthenon marbles' reinstatement soldiers on with candidates in running to design long-awaited Acropolis Museum and building of new station

A stop on the Athens metro line has been introduced decorated with imitations of Parthenon friezes, in proximity to the Acropolis Museum's intended site

Art theftarchive

Thefts from UK national museums. Question in Parliament uncovers extensive losses

13 paintings from the National Maritime Museum, a £100,000 chest from the British Museum, and a Burne-Jones panel from the V&A are some of the items stolen

How top British museums woo US donors

The Royal Academy, Tate, British Museum and National Gallery are all raising money successfully in the States, where 600,000 households report income exceeding $5m

Greece's indecision over where to Parthenon Marbles would reside

Twenty years after the government decided to build a new museum to house the sculptures, still no architect has been chosen

Agatha Christie and the Orient: Adventures on the Nile.

With over 200 objects on loan from the British Museum an exhibition which charts Agatha Christie’s travels in the Orient.

Declassified documents reveal near return of Elgin Marbles

In 1994, the Greek government was willing to accept the restitution of only a small number of the Parthenon pediment sculptures in exchange for an end to the dispute

The Parthenon Marbles and cultural politics: What are we really all talking about?

At a major conference held on 30 November and 1 December 1999, British Museum, Greek and international scholars discussed the nature of any damage to the Marbles in the hushed-up cleaning of the 1930s. Mary Beard puts the discussions in context and tells how, ever since their acquisition in 1816 by Lord Elgin, the Marbles have aroused fierce debate. Why?

How the British Museum's maintenance procedures for the Parthenon marbles have changed

After the sculptures' surfaces were damaged in the 1930s due to improper care, the museum has cleaned up its act

Art marketarchive

Rembrandt will ride again as reprinting is planned from his original plates

A Californian company prepares to sell etchings reprinted from the seventeenth-century plates

June 1999archive

Two mega-donations for London museum expansions

With £20 million each, plans progress for the British Museum Great Court and the V&A's spiral

Publishing Tate's colourful past to celebrate its centenary

Histories and anecdotes of the Tate Gallery and the British Museum

Nazi lootarchive

The Lviv Dürer story continues: Hitler’s shadow over the British Museum

Restitution claims for the Lubomirski and Ossolinski collections are complicated by the history of Lviv’s occupiers

Parthenonarchive

William St Clair makes a rebuttal to the British Museum's defence of its competence to curate Parthenon Marbles

St Clair demands greater candour in the fallout of Lord Elgin and the Marbles' third edition, in which it was asserted that over-cleaning had irreparably damaged the marbles

Historian William St Clair's account of Parthenon marbles malpractice at British Museum revives lobby calling for their return

Greeks renew demands for return of sculptures following new allegations that they were irreparably damaged in the Thirties

Looted artarchive

From the archive (1998): How The Art Newspaper tracked down Ethiopia’s greatest icon after its looting by a British agent in 1868

The Kwer'ata Re'esu was kept in a bank vault in Portugal, where our correspondent examined it and took colour photographs in 1998

Bernie Grant and the quest to return ceremonial objects to Nigeria: Was the Stone of Destiny Pandora’s box?

Grant shares with The Art Newspaper his conversation with Julian Spalding of the Kelingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow

Egypt renounces claim to the Rosetta stone and other major antiquities

A radical change of policy as new director of antiquities takes over

Rembrandt under X-ray at the British Museum

Medical technology is being utilised to obtain clear images of watermarks

Byzantine exhibition at the British Museum provides new insights but falls flat due to missed opportunities

Have scruples over not asking collector/dealers for loans, particularly for underrepresented painted icons, affected the quality of the current exhibition?

Looted artarchive

From the archive (1993): Where is the looted Kwer'ata Re'esu, the most revered icon of the Ethiopian empire?

As a touring exhibition, African Zion—The Sacred Art Of Ethiopia, opened in the United States in 1993, a scholar of Ethiopian history asked what had become of the country's most important painting of all

Art marketarchive

Victory for Wartski as disputed jewel heads to Stuttgart

The 1992 Grosvenor House Antiques Fair had declared the jewel a made-up piece

Tatearchive

Problems with British Museum acquisitions summed up in new show 'Collecting the Twentieth Century'

An exhibition at the British Museum makes Brian Sewell question whether it should be buying twentieth-century material at all