London, Day 3

The British Museum is a wonderful collection of objects stolen fair and square from all over the world.  It is arguable, and the museum does argue it, that some of the objects would not still exist had they not been, ahem, appropriated.  And yet, when I see the Elgin marbles, also known as huge chunks of the Parthenon and read the texts that indicate that various other parts of figures are in other museums, I wish the parts could be reunited into something more like a whole.  Even so, the fragments are amazing:

I liked this lion from a roomful of scenes of the king of the Assyrians hunting:

These chessmen are probably Norse, found in Scotland:

When Brent and I came to London on our honeymoon, we accidentally visited the British Library.  Before it had its own building, it used to live in this room of the British Museum.  I would like to steal the room fair and square, but I’m pretty sure it won’t fit in my suitcase: