The London Traveler

“In some countries you wouldn’t have the right to visit this exhibition about your rights.”
The handout for the British Library’s exhibition makes its point emphatically. You might look at some of the documents displayed here and think they are just dry, dusty old bits of paper – but the history of British freedom is a long one, and without that history, we wouldn’t have the freedom to live our lives as we do.
When I was at school I got the benefit of what could broadly be called the Whig view of history – Magna Carta, the Glorious Revolution of …read more

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Some things make me very cross. Here’s one of them. It may not mean much to you.
The British Museum puts the Etruscans under ‘Roman’.
Okay, let’s explain. The Etruscans were the original inhabitants of much of Italy – before the Romans. They had a culture which was much more friendly to women (Rome was notoriously misogynistic), which produced brilliant art, which welcomed immigrants from Greece and Phoenicia, and which was highly literate (though we have only a few words of their language).
The Romans destroyed the Etruscans. They stole bits of Etruscan culture but they destroyed Etruscan society.
So it strikes me that …read more

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Pete Marsh is someone I do try to visit every so often, just to see how he’s getting on.
He’s about two thousand years old, so I like to make sure he’s okay.
But on a recent visit I found he’d upped sticks!
Pete Marsh is a well preserved male body (well, the upper half, anyway) found in a bog in Cheshire in 1984. The bog gave him his name – Peat Marsh, geddit?
He must have been some kind of sacrifice, having been killed in three ways – strangled, his throat cut, and knocked on the head as well. (Either that or he …read more

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This splendid crucifixion painting is on show now in the British Museum (which will be holding an Ethiopian Day on May 3rd).
It’s just been restored, and it’s on show together with a reconstruction of the colours as they would have been when it was freshly painted – vibrant as it is, the original has faded.
Just looking at it you feel the energy of the composition. But what’s really interesting about it is that there are two stories here. There’s the crucifixion of course.  You can see the centurion with the spear on the left of the cross, and the two …read more

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A quirky exhibition at the British Museum shows you more portraits of Chairman Mao than you can shake a Long March at.
‘Icons of Revolution’ in Room 69a is an exhibition of Mao badges. While western teenagers were pinning CND badges, anarchy pins, or university clips to their denim jackets, in China the compulsory lapel badge was a portrait of Mao.
I rather think this exhibition would have appealed to Andy Warhol!

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If Chinatown doesn’t appeal, the British Museum is also celebrating Chinese New Year with a number of events – all free, though you’ll get to get a ticket for some of them at the museum.
Chinese lanterns will show the signs of the zodiac, and there will be craft workshops, including “Make your own Terracotta Army” – or at least one terracotta soldier. There’ll be a performance of ‘Monkey – Journey to the West’  – a Chinese classic, but with music by Damon Albarn. This is at six o’clock – you’ll need to book your free tickets  when you get to …read more

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