Objects are better than text at conveying narrative Neil MacGregor More Quotes by Neil MacGregor More Quotes From Neil MacGregor It is a standing source of astonishment and amusement to visitors that the British Museum has so few British things in it: that it is a museum about the world as seen from Britain rather than a history focused on these islands. Neil MacGregor museum focused history world Thanks to the unprecedented reach of British navigation, London in the early 18th century was not just the emporium of the world, it was the first place in which it was possible to assemble artifacts from around the world and allow people to study them. Neil MacGregor place thanks people world A collection that embraces the whole world allows you to consider the whole world. That is what an institution such as the British Museum is for. Neil MacGregor museum institution you world The deciphering of ancient scripts changed forever the way Europeans were able to imagine the story of humanity, destroying centuries of received authority about the past with repercussions as important for our understanding of time and history as the geological studies of the same period. Neil MacGregor humanity time history past Saddam Hussein was fascinated by ancient Babylon and Assyria. He made money available to protect and develop the great archaeological sites. The great achievements of Mesopotamian civilisation were pressed into the service of the Ba'athist regime. Neil MacGregor great service protect money Our collective memories are welcoming places, and one image, that of Jesus, has absorbed and appropriated elements of other traditions and aspirations in order to shape our communal remembering. Neil MacGregor image places traditions memories There is not much we can say with absolute confidence about the early church, but we can be fairly sure that the first Christians would not have dreamed of making a likeness of Jesus. Neil MacGregor say about confidence church The Louvre stopped buying paintings in 1848, and neither the Metropolitan nor the Hermitage acquire contemporary material. Neil MacGregor neither louvre contemporary buying Because of the long, long history of British shipping, immigration, trade, empire, missionaries, you can have a better shot at telling a worldwide story in the British Museum's collection than any other. Britain has been more connected with the rest of the world than any other country, for longer. Neil MacGregor you long history world There's the constant concern with what happens to you when you die. Every society thinks about that and makes things to deal with that. Neil MacGregor die things you society The distinction between a gallery and a museum is enormous. The gallery is about looking at a thing of beauty; the purpose of the activity is an aesthetic response. The museum is actually about the object that lets you get into somebody else's life. Neil MacGregor looking you beauty life
