British Museum

Also known as BM, the British Museum

national museum in London, United Kingdom

AI overview

The British Museum is a major national museum located in London that houses one of the world's largest collections of art, artifacts, and historical objects. It preserves and displays items spanning human history and culture, making it an important resource for education, research, and public understanding of civilizations from around the world.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Within Vinony's link graph, British Museum is referenced by 10,512 other articles, and connects out to The Buddha, prehistory and Constantine the Great.

The entry is geolocated on the map.

It is catalogued under topics including 1753 establishments in England, Archaeological museums in London and Art museums and galleries in London.

Its subject is documented across 103 Wikipedia language editions.

Research organization · ROR

Type: Archive
Founded: 1753
Location: London, United Kingdom
Also known as: BM
Status: Active

Website →Wikipedia →ROR →

GRID grid.29109.33

Wikidata facts

Official name: The British Museum
Revenue: 1487
Official website: britishmuseum.org
Image: British Museum from NE 2 (cropped).JPG

Show 22 more facts

Commons category: British Museum
inception: 1753-01-01
visitors per year: 5821000
Commons Institution page: British Museum
date of official opening: 1759-01-01
Commons gallery: British Museum
collection or exhibition size: 8000000
fee: 0
street address: Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG, UK
ground level 360 degree view URL: www.google.com/maps/@51.5192048,-0.1274951,2a,75y,198.95h,85.18t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sFyBuFtvu6FeVvVVc5--uiw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
postal code: WC1B 3DG
social media followers: 736000
P8168: Frederick IV of Oettingen
online catalog URL: www.britishmuseum.org/collection
phone number: +44 (0)20 7323 8000
donations: 4500000
fax number: 020 7323 8616
terms of service URL: www.britishmuseum.org/terms-use
WordLift URL: data.wordlift.io/wl01714/entity/british-museum
P12749: Anselm Casimir Wambold von Umstadt
P13249: British Museum
bequest income: 4669

Sources (15)

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Encyclopedic overview

The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. Established in 1753, the British Museum was the world's first public national museum. In 2025, the museum received 6,440,120 visitors and was the second most visited attraction in the United Kingdom.

At its beginning, the museum was largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. It opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. The museum's expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of British colonisation and resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, or independent spin-offs, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881. Some of its best-known acquisitions, such as the Greek Elgin Marbles and the Egyptian Rosetta Stone, are subject to long-term disputes and repatriation claims.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “British Museum” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.