London · Museums · Britain and Africa

British Museum: An Honest Guide

It is free, it is enormous, and it holds some of the greatest objects ever made by human hands. It was also founded on a fortune from Jamaican slavery, filled partly by conquest, and in 2023 it discovered that one of its own curators had been stealing from it. Here is how to visit it with your eyes open.

Overview: the museum the world built

The British Museum in Bloomsbury holds around eight million objects covering two million years of human history, from the earliest stone tools to modern banknotes. About 6.5 million people visited in 2025–26. Entry to the permanent collection is free, and in September 2026 the government confirmed it would stay free for overseas visitors too.

"The museum the world built" is how admirers describe it. Critics put it differently: much of the world did not choose to contribute. Both descriptions are true, and this guide does not ask you to pick one. It asks you to look at the labels, ask how things got here, and enjoy the extraordinary things in front of you while knowing their stories.

Founded: 1753 by Act of Parliament; opened 15 January 1759 at Montagu House
Founding collection: about 71,000 objects bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane
Collection: around eight million objects, most of them in storage
Visitors: about 6.5 million in 2025–26
Entry: free for the permanent collection; special exhibitions are ticketed
Director: Nicholas Cullinan, since 2024
Address: Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG; nearest Underground stations Tottenham Court Road, Holborn and Russell Square

The founder: Sir Hans Sloane and Jamaica

The museum was created to house the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, an Irish-born physician and naturalist who died in 1753. Sloane had spent 1687–89 in Jamaica as physician to the island's governor, and later married into a fortune that included Jamaican sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans. The income from those plantations helped pay for his collecting. His 71,000 objects became the founding collections of the British Museum, the Natural History Museum and the British Library.

For more than two and a half centuries a bust of Sloane stood on a pedestal near the entrance. In August 2020 the museum moved it into a case in the Enlightenment Gallery (Room 1), alongside objects and text explaining his links to slavery. Some called it "cancelling" history; the museum said it was finally telling it. Go and look, and make up your own mind. For more on the plantation money behind Britain's institutions, see Britain's £20 million slave-owner compensation and stately homes and slavery.

The building

The present building, with its huge Greek-temple facade of columns, was designed by Sir Robert Smirke and built in stages between the 1820s and the 1850s, replacing the old Montagu House. Its round Reading Room, where Karl Marx, Gandhi and many others studied, stands in the middle of the Great Court, which was roofed over with a glass canopy by Norman Foster's practice in 2000. It is still the largest covered public square in Europe and the natural meeting point.

Contested objects

Several of the museum's most famous objects are the subject of requests for return. The museum's own website has a section on "contested objects", which is a sign of how central these debates have become. The main cases:

The Parthenon Sculptures (Room 18): removed from the Parthenon in Athens between 1801 and 1812 by agents of Lord Elgin, under a permission from the Ottoman authorities whose meaning is disputed, and bought by Parliament in 1816. Greece has asked for their return for decades. Talks about a long-term arrangement have come and gone.
The Benin Bronzes (Room 25): about 900 objects looted from Benin City in 1897. Many other museums have now returned theirs. See our full page on Benin Bronzes, Asante gold and African treasures in British museums.
Asante gold: royal regalia taken from Kumasi in 1874 and 1896. Fifteen pieces are on loan to the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi until at least 2027.
Maqdala (Ethiopia): manuscripts and church treasures taken after the British storming of Maqdala in 1868, including sacred tablets the museum does not display.
The Rosetta Stone (Room 4): found by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799 and handed to the British under the 1801 surrender at Alexandria. Egyptian scholars have called for its return.
Hoa Hakananai'a: a statue taken from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in 1868, which the island's people have asked to have back.

The museum's standard answer is the British Museum Act 1963, which bars the trustees from permanently giving up objects except in narrow cases. Changing that would take an Act of Parliament. In the meantime, the museum's policy is partnerships and long-term loans.

The 2023 thefts

The strongest argument for keeping objects in London has always been that the museum keeps them safe. In August 2023 the museum announced that items had been stolen from its own storerooms over many years. Around 1,800 to 2,000 objects, mostly small Greek and Roman gems and jewellery, had been stolen or damaged, and many had been sold online. A senior curator, Peter Higgs, was dismissed in July 2023. He denies wrongdoing; the museum sued him in the High Court in 2024.

The scandal came to light because a Danish dealer and gem expert, Ittai Gradel, had warned the museum years earlier that stolen gems were appearing for sale; he was not believed at first. Director Hartwig Fischer resigned. By May 2024 the museum had recovered 626 objects, and the search continues. Many people in countries asking for objects back noticed the irony.

An Africa route through the museum

If you have limited time and want to see Africa's place in the museum, honestly told, try this route. Room numbers can change with refurbishments, so check gallery notices and the museum map on the day.

Room 1, Enlightenment Gallery: the Sloane case, and how 18th-century Britain collected the world.
Room 4, Egyptian sculpture: the Rosetta Stone and colossal statues of the pharaohs. For modern Egypt, see Egypt on African Independence.
Upper floor, Egypt and Sudan rooms: mummies, and the kingdoms of Nubia and Kush along the Nile. These were African civilisations, often presented as if Egypt stood apart from the rest of the continent.
Room 25, Sainsbury African Galleries (lower floor): Benin plaques and heads, Asante gold, textiles, masks and contemporary African art, including work by El Anatsui. Read about him on Ghana-Net.
Money gallery: manillas, the brass rings used as currency in the Atlantic slave trade.

Take your time in Room 25. Read how each label describes the way the object was acquired. Where it says "1897" or "punitive expedition", you know what that means. Where it is vague, ask yourself why.

Other highlights

Sutton Hoo: the Anglo-Saxon ship burial and its famous helmet.
The Lewis Chessmen: walrus-ivory chess pieces from 12th-century Norway, found in Scotland.
Assyrian lion hunt reliefs: from Nineveh, in today's Iraq.
The Bayeux Tapestry: on loan from France from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027, its first visit to Britain in more than 900 years. It is a separately ticketed exhibition and very popular, so book early.

Practical guide

Entry: free for the permanent collection. Booking a free timed ticket online is strongly recommended, especially at weekends and in school holidays. A donation of around £5 is suggested but optional.
Special exhibitions: separately ticketed.
Opening: daily, with late opening on Fridays until 20:30 (last entry around 19:00). Fridays after 17:00 are among the quietest times. Check the museum's website for current hours before you go.
Bags: security checks at the entrance; large bags are restricted.
Time: allow at least half a day. You will not see everything; nobody does.
Nearby: Bloomsbury's squares, the British Library at King's Cross, and the Wellcome Collection on Euston Road.

Planning a trip? Start with our first-time-in-London practical guide and the London hub.

Tours and experiences

Our tour partner offers guided tours of the British Museum and London, and, for those who want to see where some of these treasures came from, tours in Cairo. Entrance fees are included in the tour price where a tour visits paying sites. Tips are not included but are always welcome.

The African side of the story

Britain Adventures is part of a network of independent sites on Africa and its history. These are the places where the stories on this page continue:

Pan-African: African Independence · Uganda · Egypt · Sierra Leone · All African Radio Stations
Ghana: Ghana-Net · Cape Coast Castle · Elmina Castle · James Fort, Accra · They Made Ghana · War Cemetery Cape Coast
Across Africa: Kenya Web News · Explore Nigeria · Gambia Vibes · Zambia Vibes
European history: V2 Rocket and Peenemünde · Tannenberg Memorial

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