What controversial objects of the world of culture are by far the biggest attraction in the purpose built Duveen Gallery of the British Museum?
"Parliament introduced administrative reforms. It became easier to lend objects, the constitution of the board of trustees changed and the Natural History Museum became fully independent. By 1959 the Coins and Medals office suite, completely destroyed during the war, was rebuilt and re-opened, attention turned towards the gallery work with new tastes in design leading to the remodelling of Robert Smirke's Classical and Near Eastern galleries. In 1962 the Duveen Gallery was finally restored and the Parthenon Sculptures were moved back into it, once again at the heart of the museum. By the 1970s the museum was again expanding. More"
"until 1997. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and as with all other national museums in the United Kingdom it charges no admission fee, except for loan exhibitions. Its ownership of some of its most famous objects originating in other countries is disputed and remains the subject of international controversy, most notably in the case of the Parthenon Marbles. Although today principally a museum of cultural art objects and antiquities, the British Museum was founded as a ""universal museum"". Its foundations lie in the will of the Irish physician"
"more recent example of problematic content is the Warren Cup which features scenes of homosexual acts. The cup was offered to the British Museum but because of the subject matter it was thought to be too contentious to purchase. The cup was eventually purchased at a much higher price and is now one of the museum's important artifacts. Secretum (British Museum) The Secretum or secret museum was a section of the British Museum created officially in 1865 to store all historical items deemed to be obscene. Many items considered obscene were kept under key as early as 1830. One of"
"collection. Between six and eight titles are published each year in this series. It is a point of controversy whether museums should be allowed to possess artifacts taken from other countries, and the British Museum is a notable target for criticism. The Elgin Marbles, Benin Bronzes, Ethiopian Tabots and the Rosetta Stone are among the most disputed objects in its collections, and organisations have been formed demanding the return of these artefacts to their native countries of Greece, Nigeria and Egypt respectively. Parthenon Marbles claimed by Greece were also claimed by UNESCO among others for restitution. From 1801 to 1812,"
"British Museum welcomed over one million visitors. New mezzanine floors were constructed and book stacks rebuilt in an attempt to cope with the flood of books. In 1931, the art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen offered funds to build a gallery for the Parthenon sculptures. Designed by the American architect John Russell Pope, it was completed in 1938. The appearance of the exhibition galleries began to change as dark Victorian reds gave way to modern pastel shades. However, in August 1939, due to the imminence of war and the likelihood of air-raids, the Parthenon Sculptures, along with the museum's most valued"
"a number of permanent displays, as well as temporary exhibits of the museum's collection and visiting exhibitions. The most famous (and oldest) of these exhibitions is the crazy kitchen, a room that is built on a tilted surface, thus causing gravity to pull visitors towards the wall, but has all its furniture nailed to the floor so they won't fall, thus creating the illusion that the room is on an ordinary, flat surface. This competing information confuses visitors' brains which makes them feel nauseous. Artifact Alley, which runs diagonally across the building, displays about 700 historical objects at any one"
"had attracted since the ""Treasures of Tutankhamun"" exhibition in 1972. Holding his office during a period which has seen the Acropolis Museum constructed in Athens, he has consistently argued against returning the British Museum's controversially held sculptures from the Parthenon (the ""Elgin Marbles"") to Greece. A poll in 2014 suggested that more British people (37%) supported the marbles' restoration to Greece than opposed it (23%). His predecessor as director David Mackenzie Wilson had also tried to justify the British Museum position during a live 1983 television encounter with Greek actress and Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri, an encounter subsequently viewed"
"was established at £40,000. There have been different sponsors, including Channel 4 television and Gordon's Gin. A prominent event in British culture, the prize has been awarded by various distinguished celebrities: in 2006 this was Yoko Ono, and in 2012 it was presented by Jude Law. It is a controversial event, mainly for the exhibits, such as ""The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living"" – a shark in formaldehyde by Damien Hirst – and ""My Bed"", a dishevelled bed by Tracey Emin. Controversy has also come from other directions, including Culture Minister Kim Howells criticising exhibits,"
"to the present. On display since 1802, the Rosetta Stone is the most viewed attraction. The Natural History Museum, London was established by Richard Owen (who coined the term ""dinosaur"") to display the national collection of dinosaur fossils and other biological and geological exhibits. The National Museums of Scotland bring together national collections in Scotland. Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales comprises eight museums in Wales. National Museums Northern Ireland has four museums in Northern Ireland including the Ulster Museum. The Titanic Belfast museum, a visitor attraction in the Titanic Quarter, east Belfast, Northern Ireland on the regenerated site of"
"with the record-breaking Alexander McQueen show (3,472 a day). ""English paintings"" ""French paintings"" ""Italian paintings"" ""Sculptures"" ""gothic Art"" Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The V&A is located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area that has become known as ""Albertopolis"" because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert"
"Museum and the other great museums of the world"". The museum has also argued that the British Museum Act of 1963 legally prevents any object from leaving its collection once it has entered it. Nevertheless, it has returned items such as the Tasmanian Ashes after a 20-year-long battle with Australia. The British Museum continues to assert that it is an appropriate custodian and has an inalienable right to its disputed artefacts under British law. In 2016, the British Museum moved its bag searches to marquees in the front courtyard and beside the rear entrance. This has been criticised by heritage"
"Natural Beauty holds a contrasting role. 17 of the 25 United Kingdom UNESCO World Heritage Sites fall within England. Some of the best-known of these are: Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites, Tower of London, Jurassic Coast, Saltaire, Ironbridge Gorge, Studley Royal Park and various others. There are many museums in England, but perhaps the most notable is London's British Museum. Its collection of more than seven million objects is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world, sourced from every continent, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. The"
"Secretum (British Museum) The Secretum or secret museum was a section of the British Museum created officially in 1865 to store all historical items deemed to be obscene. Many items considered obscene were kept under key as early as 1830. One of the earliest artifacts was the Statue of Tara which was hidden for thirty years from the 1830s. The Secretum was officially created in 1865 to store all historical items deemed to be obscene. It is said to have been formally created in answer to the requirements of the Obscene Publications Act of 1857. From the 1960s onwards, the"
"of radio programmes that started in 2010 and that were created in a partnership between the BBC and the British Museum. The leading figures in this partnership were Neil MacGregor and Mark Damazer. Damazer said “My absolute favourite so far is the 16th-century mechanical galleon. It is an extraordinary piece. It is tiny and its pieces move. Beyond its beauty, it tells a story about using patronage. All these early modern rulers competed with each other to make the best of this kind of object in order to show off their craftsmen. All I want is to take away the"
"was sent on tour by the British Museum and has been exhibited in schools, shopping centres, museums, cathedrals, community spaces and a prison around the United Kingdom. It has travelled internationally but also toured Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. It has been called the Museum's most ""eloquent object"" and may have been shown in a wider variety of ways than any other artifact. The sculpture was chosen to be featured in ""A History of the World in 100 Objects"", a series of radio programmes that started in 2010 as a collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum. Throne"
"projects as an art and design ambassador with the UN in Africa and Asia. - In 1994 David was invited to design the emblem for Britain's Festival of Arts and Culture; due to this he became a driving force behind the new 'Cool Britannia' rebranding of Britain. - In 1998 his designs for theatre, opera, ballet, film and TV formed an exhibition at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. - A hat with diamonds created by David in the late 1970s was nominated by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive hat in the world in the 21st century."
"regarded by the country of origin as national treasures, there are numerous cases where artworks (often displayed in the acquiring country for decades) have become the subject of highly charged and political controversy. One prominent example is the case of the Elgin Marbles, which were moved from Greece to the British Museum in 1816 by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin. Many different Greek governments have maintained that removal was tantamount to theft. Similar controversies have arisen over Etruscan, Aztec, and Italian artworks, with advocates of the originating countries generally alleging that the removal of artifacts is a pernicious form"
"to its size. Other exhibitions include 'Hadrian's Wall' looking at Roman life in the north of England, 'Natural Northumbria' focusing on the wildlife found in the northeast, 'Ancient Egypt' looking at the Ancient Egyptians and featuring the museum's two mummies, 'Ice Age to Iron Age' detailing the history of the British Isles over the past 12,000 years, 'World Cultures' featuring artifacts and displays from cultures across the globe, 'The Shefton Collection' with one of the most detailed collections of Greek artifacts in the UK and 'Explore' which is a more hands-on area of the museum and features regular interactive sessions."
"are ticketed, but there are occasional free days. The museum has sometimes been the center of controversy. The siting of significant collections at the water's edge on reclaimed land next to one of the world's most active faults has resulted in concern by some people. There has been criticism of the 'sideshow' nature of some exhibits (primarily the Time Warp section, which has closed). There has also been criticism that some exhibits were not given due reverence. For example, a major work by Colin McCahon was at one stage juxtaposed with a 1950s refrigerator in a New Zealand culture exhibition."
"involved in the development of archaeology and the museum, including William Flinders Petrie and William Boyd Dawkins. Egyptian Worlds, takes visitors on a journey through the landscape, customs and practices of the Ancient Egyptians. Exploring Objects, reveals the archaeology collections through 'visible storage' with a difference. The gallery incorporates a haptic interactive. In June 2013 time-lapse footage showing a 10-inch Egyptian statue in the museum's collection, apparently spinning around unaided, attracted worldwide media attention. Various theories were put forward, with the university's Professor Brian Cox suggesting ""differential friction"" between the glass shelf and the object, possibly caused by vibrations made"
"was William Henry Johnson, who was one of Barnum's longest-running attractions. Another one of the famous attractions at the museum were Chang and Eng, Siamese twins who were extremely argumentative, both with each other and Barnum himself. The museum also boasted an elegant theatre, called the ""Lecture Room,"" and characterized in the popular ""Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion"" of 1853, ""one of the most elegant and recherche halls of its class to be found anywhere,"" which would offer ""every species of entertainment"" ""'from grave to gay, from lively to severe,' and ""judiciously purged of every semblance of immorality."" At one point,"
"for nearly a century, and in his determination to be fair to the entirety of the museum he was thought by some to favour other departments at the expense of printed books. He continued the work of his predecessors in restoring galleries damaged by German bombing during the Second World War, and he was responsible for opening new ones, including the Duveen gallery, where the Elgin Marbles were housed from in 1962. It was under his directorship that ""schoolboys knocked a leg off one of the Elgin Marbles"", an embarrassing event kept secret from the generic public for many years,"
"the Underground stations. As part of the Transported by Design programme of activities, in 15 October 2015, after two months of public voting, Mark Wallinger's Labyrinth work was elected by Londoners as one of the 10 favourite transport design icons. ""State Britain"" was installed inside the Duveen Hall of Tate Britain in January 2007. It is a meticulous recreation of a 40 metre long display which had originally been situated around peace campaigner Brian Haw's protest outside the Houses of Parliament against policies towards Iraq. The original display consisted of donations from the public, including paintings, banners and toys. This"
"of a Foreign Office request. In the period before a public announcement was made of his leaving the Tate, he was the cause of further controversy. A number of sculptures, chosen by Marcel Duchamp and en route from Paris to Peggy Guggenheim's London gallery, had been held by customs officers, who needed to ascertain whether they were in fact art and thus exempt from duty. In such circumstances, the arbiter was the Director of the Tate. The artists included Jean Arp and Raymond Duchamp-Villon. Manson pronounced Constantin Brâncuși's ""Sculpture for the Blind"" (a large, smooth, egg-shaped marble) to be ""idiotic"""
"A good example is the ""Picture Gallery with Fashionable Visitors"" (National Trust, Uppark House and Garden, West Sussex) dated to the 1660s. The gallery depicted is an imaginary gallery with three allegorical figures who are admiring a canvas of the 'Last Judgement'. On a table by a window are placed pieces of sculpture, a globe, and other objects. The contrast between the precious objects on the table and the 'Last Judgement' in the foreground illustrates the idea of vanitas: the ultimate vanity of earthly pleasures. His work was of influence on later Flemish genre painters such as Jan Josef Horemans"
"of contemporary Chinese art formed the inaugural exhibition in the new venue for the gallery at the Duke of York's HQ. The gallery has been an influence on art in Britain since its opening. It has also had a history of media controversy, which it has actively courted, and has earned extremes of critical reaction. Many artists shown at the gallery are unknown not only to the general public but also to the commercial art world; showing at the gallery has provided a springboard to launch careers. In 2010, it was announced that the gallery would be given to the"
"Museum. In 1972, Britain's Tate Gallery acquired Andre's ""Equivalent VIII"", an arrangement of firebricks. The piece was exhibited several times without incident, but became the center of controversy in 1976 after being featured in an article in ""The Sunday Times"" and later being defaced with blue food dye. The ""Bricks controversy"" became one of the most famous public debates in Britain about contemporary art. The gradual evolution of consensus about the meaning of Carl Andre's art can be found in ""About Carl Andre: Critical Texts Since 1965"", published by Ridinghouse in 2008. The most significant essays and exhibition reviews have"
"by the British Museum Press to coincide with the opening of the new display. Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art The Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art is a collection of Chinese ceramics and related items, on permanent display in its own gallery in Room 95 at the British Museum. The Foundation's main purpose is to promote the study and teaching of Chinese art and culture. The collection consists of some 1,700 pieces of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain from the 10th century to the 18th, as well as a painting, ""Scroll of Antiquities (Guwan tu)"" dating from"
"Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and Imperial College London. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like other national British museums, entrance to the museum has been free since 2001. The V&A covers and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs are among the largest and most comprehensive in the"
"as embarrassing for the British Museum. On his part, MacGregor has stated that it is the British Museum's duty to ""preserve the universality of the marbles, and to protect them from being appropriated as a nationalistic political symbol"" and that ""there is no legal system in Europe that would challenge the [British Museum's] legal title"" to the works. The legal basis of various Ottoman documents, now lost and possibly non-existent, to which the British Museum has traditionally appealed in order to claim ownership of the Marbles is however increasingly subject to dispute. Under the directorship of MacGregor, the Museum controversially"
"in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving manuscript of ""Beowulf"". The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and antiquarian element and meant that the British Museum now became both National Museum and library. The body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as"
"by a team of Chinese investigators as a part of an international mission to document lost national treasures. However, there have been fears that the United Kingdom may be asked to return these treasures. , Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, said he hoped that both British and Chinese investigators would work together on the controversial collection, which continues to result in resentment in China. The British Museum has refused to return these artefacts, stating that the ""restitutionist premise, that whatever was made in a country must return to an original geographical site, would empty both the British"
"of the five Platonic solids, but also some of the relations of duality amongst them (that is, that the centres of the faces of the cube gives the vertices of an octahedron). Examples of these stones are on display in the John Evans room of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University. Why these objects were made, or how their creators gained the inspiration for them, is a mystery. There is doubt regarding the mathematical interpretation of these objects, as many have non-platonic forms, and perhaps only one has been found to be a true icosahedron, as opposed to a reinterpretation"