Return to the British Museum

Philosophical return to the British Museum post lockdown.

Don’t worry I’m not going to blog my return to every gallery individually but thought I’d post this one as it did make me think a lot about the role of museums.

The museum has only opened its ground floor at the moment and has a one-way trail around the larger sections of that area. It’s all very well organised with lots of sanitiser and signage. I was a bit shocked at £3.40 for a coffee but I guess they need to make their money somehow.

However, it all feels odd. It is like the museum itself has become an exhibit labelled “Before the plague we had things called museums you could walk around and look we’ve recreated that experience for you”. Also, because it’s only ground floor and nothing has been moved it feels like edited/censored history. Egyptians and Greeks are in as is North America. Assyrians are out and not much Rome. The fact that the  Enlightenment Gallery, telling the story of how museums and categorisation developed, is also open adds another layer of felling like the whole thing is a history of museums.

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