A New Wing for the British Museum

Whenever I am in London, I try to visit the British Museum to renew my acquaintance with iconic exhibits such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon frieze and the exquisite first-century Portland Vase. The museum was transformed in 2000 by Sir Norman Foster’s astonishing glass canopy over the Great Court, a huge space containing the famous Reading Room, where Karl Marx sat for 12 years peacefully writing “Das Kapital.” The latest 
addition is the $220 
million World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, one of the largest 
redevelopment projects in the museum’s 260-year history, which opened in July. Until January 5, 2015, the center will display a blockbuster Chinese exhibit, “Ming: 50 years that changed China.” The lavish show features gold, jewelry, furniture, paintings, sculpture and textiles. Many of the objects have only recently been discovered and have never been seen outside of China.

This article appeared in the October 2014 print edition of Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report under the headline “Museum Extension."