Smith, Arthur H. [Hrsg.]; British Museum <London> / Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities [Hrsg.]: Catalogue of sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (Band 1) (London, 1892)

INTRODUCTION.

The collection of ancient sculpture in marble, included
in the Department of Greek and Eoman Antiquities in
the British Museum, may be said to represent the
efforts of more than two centuries, though the founda-
tion of the Museum itself is of a considerably more recent
date.1

The British Museum was established by Parliament in
1753. In that year, by the statute 26 Geo. II. cap. 22, a
trust was created to unite and maintain as one collec-
tion the Museum of Sir Hans Sloane, the Cottonian
Library, and the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts.

Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753),2 physician, botanist, and
President of the Eoyal Society in succession to Newton,
had formed in his lifetime a very extensive museum, con-
sisting mainly of books, natural history collections, and
ethnographical objects. At the same time classical an-
tiquities were represented by bronzes, gems, vases, terra-
cottas, and a few sculptures in marble. The examples,

1 For the history of the collections in the British Museum, see Edwards,
Lives of the Founders of the British Museum ; Michaelis, Ancient Marbles
in Great Britain, introduction.

2 There is a portrait of Sloane in the Mediaeval Room, and a bust by
Koubiliac in the Ceramic Gallery.

IS