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+--- Thread: Debt-ridden British Museum (/showthread.php?tid=526)
Debt-ridden British Museum - Orkynowot - 23rd April 2007
There will be archaeologists on the board...but they will not be contract archaeologists such as ourselves...more likley the archaeologists will be university based, if they are in red then maybe they could give the Parthenon stones backs, cut down on the overheads wont it.
May god go with you in all the dark places you must walk.
Debt-ridden British Museum - garybrun - 23rd April 2007
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Curator KidThats a very good point... as a normal commoner.. Ididnt even think of that. Maybe it should also be pointed out to the telegraph??? Its very missleading when you dont know how the process works or what people do.
It may also be the case that some of the "foreign trips" would be related to arrangements for bringing collections of material from museums overseas for special one-off exhibitions at the BM. These are generally excellent and give members of the public the chance to see and learn about sites and artefacts that normally they would only see if they went abroad - or more likely wouldn't see at all. It would be a poor show if our national museum were criticised for doing this kind of work.
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Recording OUR heritage for future generations.
Debt-ridden British Museum - Illuminated - 24th April 2007
It doesn't seem that an AGM would have any direct business concerned with foreign exhibit exchanges, and the British Museum could surely find a gap in it's corporate events calender to host it's own AGM on site.
It's worrying that the national museum of one of the world's richest countries spends less than £1 million a year on new acquisitions according to latest figures - you can blow that on a single decent metal detector find nowadays almost. But then an institution just £2 million in debt which receives £40 million a year in public funding (a fraction of total funding I'd guess) wouldn't lead me straight to the phrase 'debt ridden' either....
Will the man in the street ever be able to cut through the spin and disinformation? I'm too merry to work out the Telegraph's agenda, or maybe its just lazy misinformed journalism.
I can't work out from the article if anything has been done wrong, but interesting article! Questions should be asked in the House!
Debt-ridden British Museum - Gog - 24th April 2007
Quote:quote:Originally posted by garybrun
Maybe it should also be pointed out to the telegraph???
Since when did the Tory press (or any other press for that matter) give a **** for the facts.
Debt-ridden British Museum - tom wilson - 24th April 2007
Quote:quote:Originally posted by illuminated
It's worrying that the national museum of one of the world's richest countries spends less than £1 million a year on new acquisitions
Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, is this the same BM which alledgedly has huge stores of uncatalogued artefacts gleaned from 150-odd years of antiquarianism? It was also quite full when I last went; where are they going to exhibit any new aquisitions? Maybe they could spend a little money opening boxes and finding out what they've already got. Maybe they could sell a few things and make money to buy newer material, more representative of the current understanding of history.
(Devil's Advocate, as I say).
freeburmarangers.org
Debt-ridden British Museum - Gog - 24th April 2007
To continue the devil's advocate bit, I think the BM is a bit of an anachronism - it certainly isn't the National Museum of Britain as it is largely cluttered up with loot nicked from other people by our Redcoats in days of yore (our Glorious Past, as the Telegraph would say).
They should send the foreign stuff back where it came from, send the Welsh, Scottish and Irish bits back to the respective National Museums (where they belong) and use the residue to set up a National Museum of England. Who needs a museum of the world? - the rest of the planet can have their stuff back, as far as I'm concerned (as long as they pay the postage) - they are certainly not grateful for all the utility bills the British taxpayer has paid over the last few centuries keeping their stuff dry and warm. Time to stop being the Bad Guys.
Debt-ridden British Museum - Paul Belford - 24th April 2007
Well that is certainly one point of view. The other is, of course, that British society is multicultural and outward-looking, and the BM reflects the history of the development of our modern nation-state.
Of course if we send everything "back" to where it came from (echoes there of Enoch Powell, surely?) as the various devils' advocates have suggested, then it would be entirely reasonable to expect the return to our shores of, for example, the 450 English Paintings from the Hermitage in Russia (http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_3_1_6.html). Are we grateful to the Russians for paying the electricity bills, protecting them from the Nazis and paying for restoration of 'our' works of art? Not to mention all the rest of 'our' stuff in the Louvre, the Deutsches-Museum and so on.
Another case of swings, roundabouts and BAJR red herrings.
Debt-ridden British Museum - vulpes - 24th April 2007
Very well put old chap! Huzzah!
Not really a 'pot person'.
Debt-ridden British Museum - Gog - 24th April 2007
OK, my heavy handed attempt at off-message humour has fallen way flatB).
Not happy with the Enoch Powell crack, though - bit over the top for a reference to artefacts.
Debt-ridden British Museum - tom wilson - 25th April 2007
The repatriation issue is a bit of a tangent isn't it? (one on which I haven't commented either, PB).
The thread is about whether our cash-strapped national museum should be buying more stuff.
I wonder what the curators at the BM think, whether they would rather get in new stuff or exhibit the old stuff no-one's seen.