ABSTRACT
The museum was born within European cultures: it first followed the drive of the European Renaissance, and then the impetus of revolutions generated by the Enlightenment. The museum has constantly changed: from the Galleria Celeste of the Gonzaga in Mantua created to collect artworks according to the courts taste to the giant collections of the Vatican Museums and the Muse du Louvre; from the Wunderkammer of exotic curiosities to the nineteenth- and twentieth-century imperial expositions in London, Vienna and Paris. The British Museum developed its Sainsbury Gallery for materials previously hosted at the former Museum of Mankind, as well as its own collections, including the wonderful Benin bronzes. The British Museums African collections have always been, and still are, adverse to categorisation, mixing items of ethnographic nature with works of enormous artistic value. On gaining independence, African countries focused on museums and made an effort to transform them into showcases of national prestige.
