Oral Presentation 2

Hello! I’m in front of British Museum, in London.
British Museum is a museum of human history and culture. Their collection is more than 7 million objects. It was established in 1753. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759. Since 2001 the director of the museum has been Neil MacGregor.
It has a lot of different departments:
- Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan: the museum has the largest and comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiques. It includes objects of all periods and 140 mommies approximately. Example: Colossal bust of Ramesses II “the Younger Memnon” (1250aC).
- Department of Greek and Roman antiquities. It’s the largest collection from Classical art, with more than 100.000 objects. Example: a piece of the Parthenon on Athens.
- Department of the Middle East: it has 330.000 objects more or less. British Museum has the greatest collection of Mesopotamian culture. Example: the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II.
- Department of Prints and Drawings: it’s the one of the most important collections about prints. It was funded in 1808. There are magnificent groups of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Example: Study for the Phrygian Sibyl, Raphael.
- Department of Asia: it has over than 75.000 objects from all Asia. It covers the material and visual culture of Asia. Example: collection of Chinese Antiquities.
- Department of Africa, Oceania and Americas. It collections from African, Oceanian and American art and culture is over 350.000 objects about indigenous people. Example: Hoa Hakananai’a from Easter Island.
- Department of Coins and Medals: it has one of the most important numismatic collections, comprising about a million of objects.
- Department of Prehistory and Europe: The prehistoric collections cover Europe, Africa and Asia, the earliest African artefacts. Example: the Battersea Shield.
- Department of Conversation and Documentation and Science: it was created in 1920. Conversation has six areas: ceramics, metals, organic material, stone, wall paintings and mosaics. Science department has and continues analyse and identify materials. Example: Portland Vase.
- Libraries and Archives: it covers all levels of education. It has more than 350.000 books.