I’ve always been excited to walk into this museum
walking into the building and realising it’s free
You don’t have to get a ticket, you just walk in, it’s all yours
and then you walk towards the light, glorious moment
into the Great Court, and then discovering on the floor
an inscription that tells you a lot of what this museum is about
‘And let thy feet, millenniums hence, be set in midst of knowledge’.
This is the gallery of Enlightenment
The last time I came here there was a couple
moving along with me, very slowly looking at everything
and they didn’t seem very happy, they were quite grumpy in fact
until they came here, to look at the William Allen box
a wonderful little case, full of Roman objects
I stood on the other side of the case and I looked at them
because they had intrigued me
and I saw their faces lighting up, both had a wonderful smile
looking at these objects, discussing these objects
and I thought this was a perfect image of what it means to be in this museum
and engage with the objects
The British Museum is about the past
but it’s also about the present
and it collects meaningful objects of our own times
and this is one, it’s one of the most impressive
It’s the so-called Lampedusa Cross
It’s a donation by the man who made this cross, Francesco Tuccio
And he made this cross out of the remnants of those boats
with which refugees crossed the Mediterranean
to flee their countries, to come to Europe
It tells us a story about the fate of humankind and the challenges we meet today
and the question of hospitality and shelter
that we can give others in hardship
In a way the museum itself is a place of hospitality and shelter
it is the repository of objects that have lost their world
This is one of the best known bits of the Gilgamesh epic
It’s the 11th tablet of the Gilgamesh epic
Originally it was in three columns and there are serious lacunae in various places
and valiant research by Smith and one or two other people afterwards
have found some bits that fill in the gaps
Whether this piece is here somewhere in the museum
remains to be seen, it’s quite possible.
So, what we have in front of us is the metaphor of what we do at the museum
We piece together the remnants of cultures of the past
and try to read their texts, try to make sense of them.
I think that’s exactly right
People who feel passionate about this place and endow it with important works
with important objects, are key to the life of this institution
But it’s not only about donating objects, it’s not only about giving sponsorship
enabling us to do research and doing beautiful exhibitions
everybody coming into this place makes a donation
of his time, of her attention, of her passion
and his engagement
And we count on this
So we hope to see you again very soon, and very often.