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The 250th Anniversary Medal
The Medal
The sculptor John Maine has worked in many
places around the world, including Italy, Australia and Japan, as
well as in Britain. More used to working on a large scale - his
Arena can be seen
outside London's National Theatre - the relationship
between sculpture and architecture is an important element in his
work. He also acts as an official adviser on ancient
buildings.
After the panel
had chosen his designs for the British Museum medal, the artist
went on to produce clay models, from which dies were produced by
the Royal Mint. Medals are now being made in two different sizes.
We will put a photograph of these in the tour as soon as they are
available, and you will be able to purchase the medal online from
the British Museum
Company.
It is very
appropriate that the British Museum should have commissioned its
own medal, given that the Museum's collection of medals
numbers some 70,000 pieces and is one of the finest in the world.
It includes such rarities as Pisanello's medal of the
Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaeologus of about 1438 and Nicholas
Hilliard's medal of Queen Elizabeth I of England of about
1588 (see Other
Views). Examples of the Museum's
250th anniversary medal will now find a place in its own
collection.