6 Minute English / What's the point of museums?

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I m Neil.

And I m Beth.

London has many tourist attractions, from Big Ben to Buckingham Palace. Would it surprise you to hear that many tourists top destination is actually a museum? The British Museum contains thousands of important artefacts objects of special historical interest, including ancient Egyptian mummies, an Aztec serpent, and the Rosetta Stone. In fact, London has museums on every subject, from trains to fashion.

But recently many museums have been criticised for stealing ancient treasures during imperial times the age of the British empire. Many argue that these treasures, such as the famous Parthenon marbles and Benin bronzes, should be returned. In this programme, we ll discuss the controversial role of museums in the 21

century, and as usual, we ll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first, I have a question for you, Beth. Another of London s most visited museums, The Natural History Museum, features a grand entrance hall which, for decades, contained an impressive life-size model of a dinosaur. But what was this iconic dinosaur s name? Was it:

a) Dippy the Diplodocus?b) Terry the Terradactyl? or,c) Tyrone the Tyrannosaurus?

Ah, I think the answer is Dippy the Diplodocus.

OK, Beth. I ll reveal the answer later in the programme. Anthropologist, Professor Adam Kuper, has written a new book, The Museum of Other People, which discusses the idea that many museum artefacts were stolen and should be given back. Here he speaks to BBC Radio 4 programme, Thinking Allowed, about two sides of the debate: one which saw European culture as superior, and another which didn t.