England's archaeological history gathers dust as museums fill up

(Scene from the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where the Ark of the Covenant is put in storage, probably never to be seen again.)

It appears that the British museums no longer have enough room for storage and potential display of the many artifacts uncovered over the years. We can hope that this will prompt government authorities to release more numismatic material to the public.

England's archaeological history gathers dust as museums fill up - BBC News

 

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I doubt it, they'll send it to some other country or area, to store the objects, so they continue to be forgotten about.

 

I am sure there are plenty of places in UK where there is no decent history or archaeology museum.
Why not expand the existing museums, or create new ones? Why not hiring curators? It's not that expensive...

 

Most museums wait for a time and sell the stored things. Do not donate to a Museum. Especially US Museums.

 

Why did my brain read that as Blarney Stone?

 

Sell them to collectors. We can take as good as care of them as a museum can but we don’t share them with everyone.

 

I would be glad to share them with anyone interested, but no one I know is.

 

The more dispersed artifacts are the better. I wouldn't mind seeing a lot of these items put out on permanent loan to museums in other countries that are generally stable. Or even outright sold to private collectors in some instances.

Unrest, looting, and destruction of historical items in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and most recently Ukraine are all examples of why disbursement and spreading out of historical or archaeological items over different geographic regions is best than keeping them contained and together in the same place.

 

I would be interested.

 

I initially was thinking, How could storage space be a "massive problem"? Hell, you can throw up a rather large pole barn and fill it with racks for $60k or so.

But, I guess the real heart of the problem is security. Maybe all the museums should contribute towards a centralized, secure warehouse facility (the Indiana Jones solution!).

Or, as we would all prefer, sell the stuff that they do not deem central to their efforts. I just recently became interested in British coinage from Celtic through Victoria, so the timing would be great for me!

 

I recently had my new neighbors over for a visit. It wasn't long before I introduced my collecting habit with them. However, not long after I began showing a few of my coins I have on display in my office, I noticed the glazed over eyes. I moved on to other topics. Aw well.....

 

As I am 75 and getting older and more senile, but, I think there was a movie or book that I read a while ago, but the topic was about where many of the antiquities were stored in a climate-controlled museum in the Grand Canyon. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

 

At University of Nebraska they have more donated Indian artifacts than can ever be cataloged. Boxes, boxes and more boxes.
They only display a fraction of what they have. Yet people donate Grandpas arrow heads to the museum daily. Then they go in those boxes for God knows how long…

 

It IS amazing how little interest most people have in coins...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abortion:_An_Historical_Romance_1966

 

Stupid fact is apparently, that many of the artifacts on display in u.k museums are reproductions of the real mac coy. Why? Because they can't afford to display the kosher items as insurance would be to high. So just leave the originals hidden in the boxes in vaults or wherever it is they 'are' kept.

 

Could they contract for more storage space?

Museums in the past have consigned items to auctions to raise money. In these times of cultural provenance of some artifacts, that might be more problematic.

As for coins, yes, it would be nice if they freed up space by putting some on the market, but then coins really don't take up much room, compared to a statue or part of a frieze.

I guess if and when the BM sends the Elgin Marbles back to Athens, they can move some the items gathering dust to that wing of the museum.

 

You need 'new' neighbours. I'd love it being able to see someone's prized collection.