Lorescape Places · London

British Museum · London, UK · Opened 1759 · one of the first public museums

The World Under One Roof: Two Centuries of the British Museum

From the Rosetta Stone to the Parthenon marbles, it holds the pivotal fragments of human civilization.

The British Museum was founded in 1753 around the vast collection bequeathed by the physician Sir Hans Sloane, and opened free to the public in 1759 — one of the world's first national public museums.

Its nearly eight million objects span two million years of human history. The Rosetta Stone let scholars finally decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs; the Parthenon marbles, Egyptian mummies, and Assyrian lion reliefs are among its most celebrated treasures.

Because many pieces arrived in an age of empire and expedition, their rightful ownership remains debated around the world — every artifact carries a complicated journey behind it.

This is only the opening. With Lorescape, every gallery of the British Museum has a story you can hear.