Existing Patrons

Building the collection

The British Museum continues to add objects to its collection, ensuring it speaks to current, as well as future, generations. The following two objects have recently entered the collection and we look forward to sharing their exciting stories with new audiences.

Iron Age gold bow brooch

This beautiful brooch, believed to be from the first century AD, was acquired by the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory through the Treasure Act. Excavated in East Riding, Yorkshire, it has features that are familiar in Iron Age goldwork and an overall form consistent with Late Iron Age copper alloy brooches.

The brooch is made from two pieces of metal: one a tapered strip forming the bow, the other a short semi-circular piece at the head of the brooch hiding the coiled spring behind. The brooch is joined to top of the bow by a small seam of solder on either side.

Samuel Cooper, Portrait of a dead child

Samuel Cooper's tender drawing memorialises his cousin's infant son, who died at only a few weeks old. Acquired in May 2024 by the Department of Prints and Drawings and enabled by funding from the Ottley Group, this is the second work by Cooper to enter a public collection, as well as the first to enter the Museum collection, after an export stop prevented the work from leaving the country in 2023.  

Conserving history

Caring for the eight million objects in the collection is an ongoing and vital part of the Museum's work, with Museum conservators working alongside experts from across the globe to research and learn the best ways to care for and preserve the collection for future generations.

The Aswan cartonnage

Previously part of the collection at Sherborne Castle in Dorset, it was purchased by the British Museum in 2018.

The coffin was badly damaged – and the full extent of the damage was only visible once it arrived at the Museum. Exposure to damp had softened the cartonnage and caused it to slump under its own weight. The face of the coffin had collapsed and the middle of the lid had developed a large fold.

The conservation team used a Buckram mount, an old-fashioned technique that creates a lightweight but supportive shell. Linen strips soaked with wheat starch were pasted on in layers to create a rigid shell. Once dry, these shells were covered with layers of soft, conservation-grade padding and fabrics. The lid was placed on the newly built supports and made ready for display, broadly how it originally looked.

The Mostyn Tompion clock

Made by Thomas Tompion in London in about 1689, this year-running clock is a masterpiece requiring painstaking conservation. Not only is its silver ornamentation unmatched in quality, but the clock is a technical feat: when fully wound, it will keep the time and strike the hour on a bell for over a year.

Like so many objects in the Museum's Clocks and watches gallery, the Mostyn Tompion clock requires regular maintenance by the horology team. The spring that keeps it running all year round gradually deteriorates over decades of winding and working. Replacing it properly requires precision and skill, absorbing hundreds of hours of a conservator's time.

When the gallery first opened in 2008, about 48 objects were running but now there are only 22. Our 2025 appeal was for donations to allow additional curators to help us keep up with the volume of work, so that ticking, chiming and music can flourish in the galleries once again.

Sharing objects worldwide

From loaning objects to institutions around the UK and collaborating with local communities, to sending objects to international museums and partners, the British Museum runs a range of programmes and initiatives that bring the collection to a national and international audience.

The Gallery of Medieval Life – Norwich Castle Keep

As part of its Royal Palace Reborn project, Norwich Castle Keep developed a relationship with the British Museum which saw the loan of more than 900 objects to The Gallery of Medieval Life. The gallery opened in August 2025 following a multimillion-pound redevelopment that recreated the brilliance of the original building, transporting visitors to Norman England.

Mumbai + London – the Ancient World Project

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) and the British Museum are long-standing partners, bringing unique experiences to museum goers in Mumbai and London. The friendship began in 2012, with the British Museum loan exhibition Mummy: The Inside Story providing the first opportunity for many Indian nationals to see a real Egyptian mummy.  

The most recent landmark collaboration between the two institutions is the Ancient World Project, based on a new two-way model of collection sharing and co-curation that could provide a blueprint for future collaborations between museums around the world. The project led to the 2024/25 British Museum display Mumbai + London: new perspectives on the ancient world and a major new study gallery in Mumbai, Networks of the Past: India and the Ancient World, accompanied by an India-wide academic and educational outreach programme.