About the Collection database online

Welcome to the British Museum collection database online. When complete, it will contain a record of every object in the Museum collection.

Currently it includes records for the Museum’s collections of objects from Africa; the Americas; central, east, south and southeast Asia; ancient Egypt and Sudan; Europe, ancient Greece and Rome; Oceania; prehistory, and prints, drawings and other works of flat art from all over the world. New records and images are being added every week as work on the database continues.

The information in the records on the database is made available here in its entirety, along with its associated files of controlled terms (the thesauri and authority files such as for materials, techniques and place-names). Only fields giving prices paid and personal addresses have been withheld.

It has been designed to support curatorial and research work and much of the text is specialised in nature and terminology.

The entire database contains records for more than 1,500,000 objects. It is still in its early stages, and work is continuing to improve the information recorded in it. In many cases it does not represent the best available knowledge about the objects. This is being added as fast as possible, but will take many years.

Information held on this database therefore needs to be read with great care, as there will be mistakes and omissions. In some cases British Museum curators may not yet have checked an entry and in many cases they will have more information that they will add in the future.

Numerous staff and volunteers have worked on this project over many years and their work has been supported by funding from many donors, to all of whom we express our thanks.


Image: Michelangelo, a nude young man, to front, looking to right., beckoning

 

Web Analytics