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The 250th Anniversary Medal
The 250th Anniversary Medal
The British Museum, founded in 1753, has issued
a medal to commemorate its 250th anniversary. Four internationally
known contemporary British artists were invited to submit designs
for the medal. Selected for their strong national and international
profiles, their work's engagement with different world
cultures, and their shared appreciation of the cultural value of
the British Museum, they are Stephen Cox, John Maine RA, Cathy de
Monchaux, and Tom Phillips
RA.
A panel of experts -
Mark Jones, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and medal
historian; Katharine Eustace, curator of the 20th-century
collection of the National Portrait Gallery and member of the Royal
Mint Advisory Committee; and Philip Attwood, curator of medals in
the British Museum and editor of The
Medal, the British Art Medal
Society's journal, chose John Maine's designs as
the basis of the British Museum's
medal.
The exhibition
Celebrating The British Museum: John
Maine's Anniversary Medal (Room
69a) runs from 15 January until 15 June 2003. Included in it are
the medal itself, the designs of all four artists, and a group of
objects from the museum's collections that informed John
Maine's design and have been selected by the
artist.