More than 50,000 Indian Relics At British Museum (image-www.instagram/britishmuseum)
According to an analysis done by Al Jazeera of the British Museum’s online basis, it has been found that 2.2 million items from at least 212 different countries around the world had been catalogued as of August 30. 52,518 artefacts were categorized as acquired from India.
The British Museum houses a collection of about eight million historical and cultural artefacts from around the world. The British Museum, the world’s oldest national public museum, has come under mounting pressure following the theft of more than 2,000 items earlier this month.
The theft have resulted in the reignition of discussions regarding the repatriation and restitution of objects housed there. The move to get back the stolen inheritance has been gaining momentum all across the world. People from Asia and Africa are now demanding the return of the cultural artifacts to countries where it rightly belong.
The British Museum have admitted that they do not have the complete record of the estimated eight million items of their collection and they are recognized to be the reminder of the British colonial exploits.
Among the stolen artefacts of India, Amaravati Marbles a collection of 120 sculptures made of limestone known as Palnad marble was recovered from the Amaravati Stupa in Andhra Pradesh, southeast India still remains as one among the famous collection.
According to the museum’s online search guide, the British Museum has been working on expanding its database for at least 40 years and, even with more than two million records, it has only catalogued “about half of the collection”.
At least 649,727 items were categorised as being made in, acquired or found in the United Kingdom and the rest from Iraq (164,140) Italy (147,697), Egypt (119,854), France (81,980), Turkey (73,922), Germany (66,273), Greece (64,928), China (58,749) and India (52,518).
The museum was founded in 1753 but was first opened in 1759. Located in central London, the British Museum, one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions with four million visitors in 2022, offers free admission to its permanent collections.
