So, I find myself in a bit of a predicament. There's a piece that was in the British Museum in 1911. I know because it is illustrated in a book published in that year, and the author very clearly thanks the British museum for allowing him to examine the piece (unfortunately, the author doesn't list any acquisition or inventory number, or any sort of useful data. Just a brief description and a hand-drawn line picture). However, when I go to search the British Museum website (which claims to list 4 million artifacts), I simply cannot find it. I've tried every combination of key word that I can think of, but still no luck. Therefore, questions: 1. Has the British Museum de-acquisitioned pieces? Have they had sales of their retired pieces? Are there records of those sales? Perhaps the piece I'm trying to track down is just no longer owned by the museum. 2. Has anyone else had trouble finding a piece in the museum archives? Was there some trick to locating it? Did you have to use unexpected keywords? 3. Does anyone know if there are more pieces which have yet to be listed on the website archives? Do you know if there's a way to find pieces which aren't listed? I realize it's a bit of a shot in the dark, but I'm trying to research an item which I recently purchased (*very* interesting thread to follow, I hope). Any researchers who might be able to offer me assistance will be appreciated. I've reached out to the British Museum as well, but they are shut down right now and I don't think I'll ever get an answer from them.
Good luck. I can't answer your question but can feel your pain. I've never had to email them but there are other museums around the world that I have emailed and I always (yes always) got a reply.
I assume it's some kind of antiquity rather than a coin? Because if it were a Roman coin, it would presumably be listed in BCMRE or the parallel volumes by Grueber on the Roman Republic, published (as it happens) in 1911. All of which are available online, in their original form or otherwise. And I'm sure the British Museum's Greek coins have been published as well. If it were a vase, or some other example of figure-decorated ancient pottery, you could look for it in the Beazley archive and the related databases (see https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/index.htm). If it's something else, and it doesn't appear in the Museum's online catalogue, you might search for catalogues or inventories of various collections that the Museum may have published early in the 20th century. Of course, you'd probably have to find an open major research library to view a copy of such a thing!
They have sold off coins in their collection. @AncientJoe has/had at least one of them. I has an extremely rare Roman coin which David Sear had referenced from the BMC, but it is no longer in the collection. Is it a Falus?
