British Museum
The British Museum is a famous museum in London. At the end of Tomb Raider Legend Lara sends Alister there and tells him to ring her when he arrives.
The museum is also mentioned in the Comic Tomb Raider / The Darkness Special.
Miscellaneous facts
- A part of Tomb Raider III takes part in the Natural History Museum in London. In it Lara visits an Egyptology exhibit, which in real life would be more fitting for the British Museum, as the Natural History Museum is solely devoted to the natural world and rather exhibits such as the skeletons of giant dinosaurs and a stuffed dodo.
- There are a number of "disputed items" in the British Museum, presumably collected by colleagues of Lara Croft over the years. They include the Elgin Marbles (claimed by Greece), the Benin Bronzes (claimed by Nigeria), the Ethiopian Tabots (claimed by Ethiopia), 4 stolen drawings (Nazi plunder), Achaemenid empire gold and silver artefacts from the Oxus Treasure (claimed by Tajikistan), Aboriginal human remains (returned to Tasmania), Mold's Golden Cape (claimed by Wales) and last but not least the Rosetta Stone (claimed by Egypt). [1]
- The British Museum has featured in a numbers of movies, including The Wakefield Case (1921), Blackmail (1929), The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) and Tale of the Mummy (1998) [2]. However the Disney film "One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing" is set in the Natural History Museum [3].
Background
The origins of the British Museum lie in the will of the physician, naturalist and collector, Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) [4]. Sloane wanted his collection of more than 71,000 objects, library and herbarium to be preserved intact after his death. He bequeathed it to King George II for the nation in return for payment of £20,000 to his heirs. The first famous antiquities, Sir William Hamilton's collection of Greek vases and other classical objects, were purchased in 1772. These were followed by such high profile acquisitions as the Rosetta Stone and other antiquities from Egypt (1802), the Townley collection of classical sculpture (1805), and the sculptures of the Parthenon, known as the Elgin Marbles (1816).
References
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum#See_also Retrieved on 31st Oct 2008
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/keyword/british-museum/ Retrieved on 21st Sep 2009
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_of_Our_Dinosaurs_is_Missing Retrieved on 31st Oct 2008
- ↑ http://www.britishmuseum.org Retrieved on 31st Oct 2008
