The British Museum...All the Stuff They Stole

Another cold January day in London...sunny though. Tracy was off, so we decided to hit the British Museum. We'd done it briefly back in September when she was interviewing, but today was a longer tour. If you like history, it's a great place. If history museums bore you, oh well.

The Brits used their empire to acquire thousands of artifacts from all over the world. The British Museum is truly one of the great museums of the world. But it hasn't been without some controversy. In particular, the Elgin Marbles. These are sculptures taken from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. After the Parthenon was mostly destroyed during wartime in the late 1600's. An English Earl, of Elgin, brought some of the sculptures that decorated the Parthenon back to England in the early 1800's and sold them to the British Museum. Their reasoning was that they were attempting to save them from further destruction from vandalism. Probably quite legitimate at the time. Less so now. The Greeks have wanted them back for a long time but the British have so far refused. It isn't my place to judge, but I see the Greek's point. Here are some examples:

Not everything was taken from outside Britain. Some of my favorites are the Lewis Chessmen. Likely made during the 12th century in Scandinavia, though nobody knows for sure, they were found on the Isle of Lewis (hence the name), Outer Hebrides, Ireland. They really have a lot of character in their faces and poses.

 

There are also the statues of King Maussollos and his wife, from one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The king's name is where we get the word "mausoleum".

Also, the Rosetta Stone:

Various Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, and Greek relics:

Once outside, we walked through Russell Square and took some snow pix. It was still pretty, even though the snow was melting.

British Museum in background

Russell Hotel with Russell Square in foreground

And we can't forget the silly poses...

We should be moving into the flat in 3 days, so unlikely to post anything more until I can post pix from the new place.