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Terms and conditions for free image service

Please refer to Terms of use for the Standard Terms of Use applicable to this website

The British Museum has made every effort to identify copyright holders of objects and to obtain permission to include images on the website. Any omissions are unintentional and we will endeavour to rectify these as soon as possible, once we are notified.

You are reminded that if a work of art, sculpture or work of artistic craftsmanship is still in the artist’s copyright (where for example the artist is still alive or has died within the last 70 years) you will need to obtain the separate permission of the artist or his or her estate or successor in title in order to reproduce the work. We are not able to help you in tracing artists or their successors in title. Some may be registered with DACS (www.dacs.org.uk).

This free digital image service is managed by usage rather than user. We offer non-exclusive licences to use the selected material free of charge. By registering with us you may use available digital images that we email to you conditional upon our Standard Terms of use as limited by the following Terms:

  • You should be an individual or a charity, society, institution or trust existing exclusively for public benefit
  • You may use images for private purposes in education, teaching, academic study and research
  • You may publish images in a book, article, thesis or booklet, provided that the publication is non-commercial in purpose, and of an educational, scholarly or academic nature and has a print-run of not more than 4,000
  • You may make “one-time” use only
  • Reproduction sizes for images must not exceed A5 size
  • All images must be credited as follows: © Trustees of the British Museum
  • No copyright or proprietary right is conveyed with the use of any image supplied by us
  • Images may not be passed on for third-party use
  • Images may not be used on any electronic media
  • Images may be cropped but not changed or manipulated in any way without written permission from the British Museum
  • Images may not be used in any way which could be considered to be deceptive or which could reflect unfavourably upon the good name or reputation of the British Museum

In the event of any identified breach of our Standard terms of use we may take any appropriate action to constrain further use and/or seek financial recompense.