Past exhibitions
Take a look at our past exhibitions and enjoy the articles, videos and photo galleries still available to view online.
Take an online tour of Feminine power: the divine to the demonic, The world of Stonehenge or Peru: a journey in time.
From Legion: life in the Roman army to China's hidden century, explore the exciting back catalogue of exhibitions and displays held here at the British Museum.
2024 Free exhibitions and displays
Rethinking the British Museum
This display set out the bold visions of five internationally acclaimed architectural teams to transform the British Museum's 'Western Range', before later announcing the winner.
Gifts of love and friendship: Max Beckmann and Marie-Louise von Motesiczky
This display told the stories behind a group of significant drawings and prints by German artist Max Beckmann donated by his friend and former pupil.
Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies
A masterpiece of early Chinese figure painting, from the fifth to seventh century AD, displayed annually at the British Museum.
New life: Rembrandt and children
This exhibition gave visitors the chance to discover an intimate drawing of a sleeping child, the first work by Rembrandt to be added to the British Museum collection for decades.
Contemporary collecting: David Hockney to Cornelia Parker
This display highlighted the significant collection of contemporary British art held at the Museum through a selection of around 100 prints and drawings, dating from 1960 to today.
Rediscovering gems: small wonders, big impressions
Gems were the picture book of the ancient Mediterranean world – this display captured the fascination they've inspired over the centuries.
A Scot in St Ives: works by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
Including major new acquisitions, this display highlighted the work of a leading member of the 'St Ives School' of artists, who blazed a trail in British art from the 1940s–60s.
2023 Free exhibitions and displays
Making their mark: women silversmiths from Oman
This display explored the stories of three women who are helping to revive the longstanding tradition of silversmithing in Oman.
Gesture and line: four post-war German and Austrian artists
This display explored the work of four artists who spearheaded the practice of drawing in the post-war years.
Superb line: prints and drawings from Genoa 1500–1800
Showcasing prints and drawings from Genoa's golden age, this display shone a light on an artistic powerhouse that rivalled Venice, Florence and Rome.
Ed Ruscha roads and insects
This display of prints by American artist Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) focused on his prevailing interest in the physical world around him.
The genius of nature botanical drawings by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues
This display reveled in the beauty of nature, showing works by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues – one of the most gifted botanical artists of his age.
Perilous journeys: reflections on migration
These works by contemporary artists from Nigeria and Mexico reflected on the loss of people and culture through the impact of human trafficking and unsafe migration.
Leon Golub and Nancy Spero: the Jon Bird gift
This display presented nine works on paper by the American artists Leon Golub (1922–2004) and Nancy Spero (1926–2009), highlighting the couple's deep engagement with social and political causes over 50 years.
David Jones (1895–1974): the Stanley and Jacqueline Honeyman bequest
This display celebrated a bequest of six drawings by David Jones, an artist and poet with a deep and enduring interest in mythology, theology and the cultural history of Britain.
Japan's festival floats
This display celebrated Japan's spectacular local festivals and featured a beautifully crafted model of a festival float.
New acquisitions: Paul Bril to Wendy Red Star
This display showcased more than 100 works of art from the 16th century to the present from Europe, North America and Australasia.
The Bakor monoliths: endangered heritage
In this exhibition the spotlight fell on the elaborately carved ancestral stone sculptures found in the Ikom region of Cross River State in Nigeria, highlighting the environmental, economic and cultural threats to their preservation.
Venice 1500: Jacopo de' Barbari and the rise of printmaking
This display showcased the innovation and variety of printmaking in Venice during the High Renaissance.
Klaus Friedeberger drawings from an Australian Internment
The drawings and watercolours in this display recorded daily life in an internment camp in outback Australia in the 1940s.
2022 Free exhibitions and displays
Tutankhamun reimagined
Egyptian graffiti artist Nofal O responded to Tutankhamun's legacy with a powerful display painted directly onto the walls of Room 3.
Artists making books: poetry to politics
Whether subverting, inverting, celebrating or exploding – this intriguing show explored the history of artists taking on the medium of books.
Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies
A masterpiece of early Chinese figure painting, from the fifth to seventh century AD, displayed annually at the British Museum.
Art on paper since 1960: the Hamish Parker collection
From Lucian Freud to Kiki Smith, life drawing to minimalism and etching to collage, this exhibition spanned an intriguing range of styles and techniques used in art on paper from 1960 to 2017.
Two million prints online for all
For 30 years, a small team individually catalogued one of the world's greatest collections of works on paper, bringing together this unique display.
Shattered glass of Beirut
This display followed the story of eight ancient glass vessels, from their destruction in the 2020 Beirut explosion to their restoration.
Mary Gillick: modelling The Queen's portrait
In 1952, the young Queen Elizabeth II sat down to have her profile immortalised, for the first time, on British currency – this display revealed the artist and the process behind the portrait.
The woodpecking factory: Victorian illustrations by the Brothers Dalziel
This intriguing display highlighted over 50 works engraved on wood by the Brothers Dalziel firm, a Victorian wood-engraving company.
Printmaking in Prague: art from the court of Rudolf II
Visitors learned about printmaking in Rudolf's court in Prague during the highpoint of innovative and ambitious prints.
Drawing attention: emerging British artists
This exhibition displayed emerging talents in the field of contemporary drawing alongside highlights from the Museum's collection.
Greek Revival: simplicity and splendour
This free display in Room 3 explored more about the rise of Greek Revival architecture through contemporary watercolours and contextual images.
Raphael and his school: drawing connections
Following the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael, visitors were invited to experience the Italian Renaissance master's exquisite drawings and trace his influence through the work of his pupils.
2021 Free exhibitions and displays
Contemporary women artists of Japan: six stories
This display explored the experiences and expressive visions of internationally acclaimed Japanese women artists from the 1960s to the 2010s.
Life in a cup: coffee culture in the Islamic world
'Life in a cup' presented a fascinating story and explored the traditions that make coffee a way of life in parts of the Islamic world.
Raphael: emerging artists respond
Marking the 500th anniversary of Raphael's death, emerging artists responded to one of the Renaissance master's spectacular drawings.
Enticing Peaks: Swiss prints from the Lloyd Bequest
This exhibition presented a selection of the finest prints from Robert Wylie Lloyd's (1868–1958) collection revealing his admiration for the Alpine landscape.
Reflections: contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa
This display weaved together a rich tapestry of artistic expression from artists born in, or connected to, countries from Iran to Morocco.
2020 Free exhibitions and displays
Edmund de Waal: library of exile
Created as a 'space to sit and read and be', library of exile is an installation by British artist and writer, Edmund de Waal, housing more than 2,000 books in translation, written by exiled authors.
Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman
Grayson Perry's playful memorial to the unnamed craftsmen and women who made some of the wonders of history.
Geoffrey Clarke: a sculptor's studio
This display celebrated a bequest of works from the studio of the prolific post-war sculptor, Geoffrey Clarke RA (1924–2014).
Piranesi drawings: visions of antiquity
Step back in time with this landmark display of drawings by Neoclassicist printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
French Impressions: prints from Manet to Cézanne
Explore the flourishing Impressionist print movement of late 19th century France.
Living with art: Picasso to Celmins
Spanning almost one hundred years of modern art, this display showcased Alexander Walker's collection of contemporary prints and drawings.
2019 Free exhibitions and displays
Disposable? Rubbish and us
This exhibition considered the historical creation of single-use and repurposed objects.
Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies
A masterpiece of early Chinese figure painting, from the fifth to seventh century AD, displayed annually at the British Museum.
Currency in crisis: German emergency money 1914–1924
This exhibition revealed how this temporary currency responded to a national crisis with designs commenting on society and politics.
Nara: sacred images from early Japan
This exhibition featured treasures from the great temples and shrines of Nara, and Hōryūji, one of Japan's oldest Buddhist temples.
Sir Stamford Raffles: collecting in Southeast Asia 1811–1824
An exhibition of the rich variety of objects from Java and Sumatra collected by Sir Stamford Raffles.
Portrait of the artist: Käthe Kollwitz
This show celebrated the humanity and enduring impact of one of the most influential 20th-century printmakers.
Pushing paper: contemporary drawing from 1970 to now
Celebrating the power of contemporary drawing, this display explored how artists have pushed the boundaries of the medium. It's now on tour.
John Christian: collecting the last Romantics
A display of works collected by the art historian and curator who contributed to understanding of Pre-Raphaelite and late Victorian art.
At home: Royal etchings by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
This collection of rare etchings made by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of family life revealed that the royal couple were talented artists – and more affectionate parents than often thought.
Woven in hair: a recent gift of hairwork jewellery
Uncovered: the surprising beauty of jewellery made from human hair and the intimate meaning such pieces had for those who wore them, as friendship, sentimental or memorial tokens.
Yinka Shonibare: Cowboy Angels
In these artworks, Shonibare combines imagery of angels, representations of African masks, cowboy tropes of the American West, and his signature waxprint fabrics.
Collecting histories: Solomon Islands
The artefacts and historical photographs in this display were selected to explain how colonial relationships contributed to the collections of the British Museum.
Playing with money: currency and games
This exhibition looked at how modern board games, educational toys, gambling and role-playing games reflect, inform and shape our understanding of economics and money.
The world exists to be put on a postcard: artists' postcards from 1960 to now
Discovered: both the politics and playfulness of a unique collection of 300 postcards gifted to the British Museum.
Rembrandt: thinking on paper
Comprising 65 prints and drawings, this stunning exhibition highlighted Rembrandt's technical and creative ingenuity on paper.
2018 Free exhibitions and displays
Reimagining Captain Cook: Pacific perspectives
This exhibition explored the work of contemporary Pacific artists, alongside objects collected on the voyages themselves.
No man's land
This display presented ancient and modern perspectives and attitudes towards the territories, landscapes and man-made borders of the Middle East.
Witnesses: émigré medallists in Britain
This exhibition featured a range of medals spanning six centuries, many of which document important historical events and famous figures.
New acquisitions: Gozzoli to Kara Walker
This exhibition highlighted a selection of diverse prints and drawings purchased, donated or bequeathed to the Museum.
