BRITISH MUSEUM. — In Londra, beside the «Victoria and Albert Museum», which contains a large collection of early Christian objects, Coptic textiles (Kendwick’s catalogue), ivories (Longhurst’s catalogue), and glassware, with a special section for casts, the B. M. houses a magnificent collection of art from late classical antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The B. M. was founded by the British Parliament in 1753, and the present building was constructed between 1823 and 1852 by Roberto and Sydney Smirke.
In 1893 the early Christian and early medieval objects were arranged in special rooms among the great collections relating to the history of religions. But the African mosaics, ivories, gems, and glassware remain dispersed in other rooms: for example, the coins and lead objects in the numismatic cabinet; the collection of glassware and ivories in the medieval room; the goldwork in the gold room; the native antiquities in the Romano-British section; the stelae and Coptic textiles in the Egyptian rooms; and the miniatures, such as the Genesi of Cotton, among the manuscripts.
The Christian section consists of three collections: early Christian, Byzantine, and post-1553 objects; among these are many works from Abissinia, Egitto, and Russia. The arrangement and catalogue are largely due to O. M. Dalton.
The collection was never intended to document the development of ancient Christian art, but it contains pieces of the highest value, such as the Esquiline Treasure, the Cyprus Treasure, and the Lampsacus Treasure. The ivory collection likewise contains masterpieces of worldwide renown, such as the archangel Michael, the pyxis of s. Menna from the Nesbit collection (1879), and the casket with the Crucifixion from the Maskell collection. Other ivories and minor objects come not only from the aforementioned collection (1856), but also from the Slade and Hawkins collections. Rings and gems of high quality were acquired with the Hamilton collection in 1865, with that of Castellani in 1865, and with that of Francks in 1897; glassware, and especially gold-glass bottoms, with the Bunsen and Disch collection in 1854 and with that of Matarozzi in 1863. Other objects, such as bronze lamps, polycandela, lamps, and ceramic lamps and ampullae, are largely due to more recent acquisitions. O. M. Dalton’s catalogue carefully records the provenance of all these pieces. Sculpture and architectural fragments, on the other hand, are scarce.
In July 1939, in the eastern part of Great Britain, near the estuary of the Deben at Sutton Hoo, an imposing artistic treasure was discovered beneath one of the burial mounds, inside a large rowing ship; the treasure was donated to the British nation by the owner of the land. When the B. M. gallery reopened in 1946, the material from this treasure began to be displayed there as it emerged from restoration. It is the most imposing treasure in terms of both number and value, comprising a standard-bearer, a silver dish bearing the seal of the emperor Anastasius I (491–518), drinking horns, a large silver basin with a classical head, silver plates, silver spoons, two of them bearing the inscriptions SAUL and PAUL, a helmet, a sword, a belt buckle, and a large gold purse clasp, enamels and filigree, 37 Merovingian gold coins, etc.; the whole probably belonged to King Aetelihere, who died between 655 and 656 and is mentioned by Bede (Hist. eccl., III, 24: PL 95, 156).