British Museum to be reimagined, making it fit for modern purpose

Chairman of the British Museum, George Osborne announced a new chapter for the British Museum, one that reimagines the museum. A masterplan costing £1 billion, aimed at making the British Museum, "the global museum of common humanity" with more details to be revealed next spring. 

The British Museum is also looking to change the way that it engages with communities whose treasures the museum holds in trust.

In The Times today, George Osborne insisted that the collections would not be permanently broken up, but that “some of our greatest objects” would return to their countries of origin if common ground could be found: “My message is: if you’re ready to find the common ground, then so are we.” The article goes on to highlight that the  "Western sculpture galleries will be transformed, while some of the Greek revival architecture of the building will undergo restoration. George Osborne also promised a programme of rebuilding, and a museum powered by a new energy system to make it “a net zero carbon museum — no longer a destination for climate protest but instead an example of climate solution.”

This follows the unveiling at the Freud Museum on Tuesday of a 3D replica of the chariot horse head, of the goddess Selene. The replica created by the Institute of Digital Archaeology (IDA) was crafted from the same marble that all of the Parthenon sculptures were made. Roger Michel of the IDA hopes that the precision of this replica will sway the BM to support the reunification of the sculptures that have survived, and in so doing, respond to the global community's wishes to view them in the Acropolis Museum.

BCRPM's quote of 2012, continues to hold true today as it did a decade ago: 'the Parthenon Gallery in the Acropolis Museum is the one place on earth where it is possible to have a single and aesthetic experience simultaneously of the Parthenon and its sculptures. It is time for the UK to enter into dialogue with Greece about the terms of, and conditions under, which the return of these sculptures could be facilitated.'

More on the news regarding the refurbishment of the British Museum by Cristina Ruiz in The Art Newspaper from Thursday 03 November and followed on Friday 04 November, by Tessa Solomon in ARTnews.