Walk into any European museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objectsare all stolen. Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of brass plaques and carved ivory tusks depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of BeninCity, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections. The story of the Benin Bronzes sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. In The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.

The British Museum is the oldest publicly funded museum in the world. This volume tells the story of the collections, the buildings that house them, and the people who have administered and curated them since its foundation in 1753.

The Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum are unrivaled examples of classical Greek art, an inspiration to artists and writers since their creation in the fifth century bce. A superb visual introduction to these wonders of antiquity, this book offers a photographic tour of the most famous of the surviving sculptures from ancient Greece, viewed within their cultural and art-historical context. Ian Jenkins offers an account of the history of the Parthenon and its architectural refinements. He introduces the sculptures as architecture--pediments, metopes, Ionic frieze--and provides an overview of their subject matter and possible meaning for the people of ancient Athens. Accompanying photographs focus on the pediment sculptures that filled the triangular gables at each end of the temple; the metopes that crowned the architrave surmounting the outer columns; and the frieze that ran around the four sides of the building, inside the colonnade. Comparative images, showing the sculptures in full and fine detail, bring out particular features of design and help to contrast Greek ideas with those of other cultures. The book further reflects on how, over 2,500 years, the cultural identity of the Parthenon sculptures has changed. In particular, Jenkins expands on the irony of our intimate knowledge and appreciation of the sculptures--a relationship far more intense than that experienced by their ancient, intended spectators--as they have been transformed from architectural ornaments into objects of art.

The Hajj is the largest pilgrimage in the world today and a sacred duty for all Muslims. With contributions from renowned experts, this book opens out onto the full sweep of the Hajj: as a sacred path walked by early Islamic devotees, as a sumptuous site of worship under the care of sultans, and as an expression of faith in the modern world.

Sometimes a friendly fireside companion, more often elusive and independent, the cat possesses an enigmatic appeal and unfathomable mystery, which have inspired writers poets, artists and craftsmen alike from the illuminations of the Lindisfarne Gospels to Rudyard Kipling.

This new and updated edition includes many recent acquisitions and new discoveries, such as Picasso's stunning Vollard Suite and the intriguing Vale of York Viking hoard, and showcases a selection of more than 250 of the most beautiful and important objects drawn from across the Museum. Each object is presented with its own fascinating story and is strikingly illustrated in full colour. From the Warren Cup to Durers Rhinoceros, the Lewis Chessmen to the Aztec turquoise serpent and the Gayer-Anderson Cat, the iconic objects of the British Museum are here presented in an exciting and accessible new way, highlighting the superb craftsmanship and ingenuity of those who created each of these splendid pieces.

This beautifully produced book draws on the latest research, illustrating the complete set of drawings, published for the first time.