• on his death in 1727, antiquary and historian Thomas Madox's unpublished notes ran to ninety-four volumes, which his wife later left to be added to the British Museum's Sloane library?
• a silver dish thought to be the Ancient Roman Risley Park Lanx was on display in the British Museum for several years before being determined to be a complete fabrication?
• the Admonitions Scroll (detail pictured), a treasured possession of the Qianlong Emperor, was bought by the British Museum for only £25 in 1903?
• the Holy Thorn Reliquary in the British Museum bears the inscription "This is a thorn from the crown Of Our Lord Jesus Christ"?
• the Nereid Monument was constructed in the British Museum in 1969 from material brought from Lycia in 1840?
• the Lothair Crystal, an engraved gem now in the British Museum, was once sold for ten pounds?
• a part of the Parthenon Frieze currently at the British Museum used to be kept at Marbury Hall in Cheshire, England?
• a ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle made by Thomas Earnshaw is now in the British Museum?
• Charles Gray was one of the original trustees of the British Museum?
• Irish writer and trade unionist Brian Behan once took part in a swearing match at the British Museum?
• Minuscule 644 was bought by the British Museum from Constantine Simonides, a forger of manuscripts?
• The British Museum Friends recently provided funding to help the British Museum acquire twelve Greek papyri from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri?
• British art forger Shaun Greenhalgh was a self-taught artist, yet managed to fool the British Museum, the Tate Modern, and Bonhams, Sotheby's and Christie's?
• English botanist John Ralfs amassed a collection 3,137 microscopic slides, which he left in his will to the British Museum?

Facts on topics related to British Museum

Imperial War Museum

• 52 of Sholto Johnstone Douglas's paintings of First World War "dazzle ships" (dazzle camouflage pictured) are in the Imperial War Museum?

National Portrait Gallery (London)

• British painter Alessandro Raho, commissioned to portray Judi Dench for the National Portrait Gallery in London, imagined her as a wealthy housewife?

Natural History Museum

• Alfred Merle Norman, whose collection of 11,086 species was acquired by the Natural History Museum in London, was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1906?
• ornithologist James David Macdonald was employed in the bird section of the British Natural History Museum despite claiming complete ignorance about birds?

Royal Academy

• 19th-century English portrait painter Henry William Pickersgill was a member of the Royal Academy for almost 50 years, and showed a total of 384 works there?
• British Pre-Raphaelite painter Solomon Joseph Solomon (artist of the picture) was one of the few Jewish painters of his time to become a member of the Royal Academy?
• Simeon Solomon was a British painter who regularly had works displayed at the Royal Academy in the 1860s?
• even though Gassed (pictured) was voted picture of the year by the Royal Academy of Arts, E. M. Forster considered it too heroic?
• the Chester architect John Douglas showed his designs for Wrexham Road Farm, Eccleston, and Saighton Lane Farm at the Royal Academy in 1888?