The British Museum

One of the great values ​​of London is its offering of museums. The British capital hosts a number of exhibitions, galleries and art galleries of the first order that make the city one of the world's centers of culture. Among them are the National Gallery, the Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and especially the British Museum.

Although the British Museum (British Museum, colloquially "the British") hosts art of all kinds he is not considered a "universal" art museum as might be the Louvre in Paris and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, because its collection focuses mainly in the old art, although we can find drawings and paintings (Goya, Durer ...) as well as an extensive ethnological collection.
The British Museum is the second most visited museum in the world, welcoming every year about 6 million visitors. Currently, the museum's home to about 7 million objects which are exposed around 50,000, while the rest are stored for lack of space or study or conservation processes. They include parts such as the Rosetta Stone or the Parthenon Marbles.

British history

The origin of the museum goes back to 1753 when Sir Hans Sloane donated his private collection to the state of more than 80,000 items including books and manuscripts had, Dürer and antiquities from Greece, Rome, Egypt, East and America. the Montagu house was purchased and there the museum, which opened its doors for the first time on January 15, 1759 was established.

Over time, the collection grew with various acquisitions, including the collection of the British ambassador to Naples, Sir William Hamilton, the Parthenon Marbles donated by the Earl of Elgin and the Library donated by King George IV. The growth in funds from the British Museum made the Montagu house he would tarry small, so in 1845 it was demolished and in its place the current neo-classical building, designed by architect Robert Smirke was built.

The museum attracted many historians and scholars and published in 1808 the first catalog of his collection. Subsequently, it was decided to spin off all material housed to provide self to others identity: in 1887 they moved to the Museum of Natural History natural pieces (although independent museum was considered in 1963), and the British Library was established as such, British independent in 1973, but the building retains the great reading room.

In 2000 he was inaugurated the Great Court of Isabel II (Great Court), the last major extension of British, one (the largest in Europe) square covered with steel and glass roof designed by Norman Foster.