British Museum. Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities

For many years, the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities was one of the British Museum’s main curatorial departments, caring for objects from ancient Greece, Rome, and related cultures. Its publications helped document sculptures, vases, bronzes, inscriptions, and other antiquities in the museum’s collection, making the department’s name familiar far beyond the museum itself.

The department is especially associated with scholarly catalogues produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These works were usually written by individual curators or assistants working within the department, so the department name often appears almost like a corporate author on title pages.

Today, the British Museum organizes this material under its Greece and Rome collection area, but the older department name remains important for readers searching historical museum catalogues, excavation reports, and collection references.