British Museum
A national museum in London dedicated to human history, art, and culture.
The British Museum StoryEstablished in 1753 and opened in 1759, the British Museum was the world's first free, national, public museum. Located in Bloomsbury, London, it holds a collection of approximately eight million objects covering two million years of human history and all fields of human knowledge.
The museum is an executive non-departmental public body governed by Trustees and sponsored by the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is funded via government grant-in-aid and self-generated income, maintaining free admission for the public.
As one of the world's most-visited museums, it recorded 6,479,952 visitors in 2024, making it the most-visited attraction in the UK that year. Due to its collection's growth during the British Empire, the museum is frequently involved in repatriation discussions and debates regarding contested objects.