Part 1  大英博物馆的副馆长欧文·芬克尔Irving Finkel

Dear friends of  Sanlianzhongdu, my name is doctor Irving Finkel, I’m curator in the British Museum in London.

三联中读的朋友们，大家好。我是Irving Finkel博士，是大英博物馆的副馆长。

The British Museum is one of the oldest museum in the world, is more than 250 years old, and it has objects and treasures from  all over the world on public exhibition, and no one has to pay entrance fee.

大英博物馆是世界上最古老的博物馆之一，有着250多年的历史。它向公众展示着来自于全世界的文物和珍宝，而且免费开放。

The museum building if you have ever seen before when you first approach is a bit like a Greek temple, because it has columns supporting the roofs with  sculptures, so you think for a moment you are in ancient Greece.

▲大英博物馆

这座博物馆，如果你之前有来过，看到它的第一眼会觉得它有点像一座希腊神庙，它刻有雕塑的屋顶由很多柱子支撑，让你一瞬间仿佛置身于古希腊。

There are very many objects in the museum which are extremely important. But some of them are especially.So one of the these is Rosetta Stone, which was found in Egypt  in the 19th century. And writing in Greek and in Egyptian, and was the tool whereby people could dissever the ancient  Egyptian writing for the first time. and open up all that remarkable material writing in ancient hieroglyphic script.

三件镇馆之宝

镇馆之宝01：《罗塞塔石碑》

▲《罗塞特石碑》“The Rosetta Stone”，古埃及，196BC，现收藏于大英博物馆

博物馆里收藏了很多非常重要的文物，有的非常特别。其中有一件《罗塞塔石碑》，于19世纪在埃及发现。这件石碑上刻着希腊文和古埃及文字，成为了人们第一次区分古埃及文字的重要工具，也解密了古代象形文字中的所有重要内容。

镇馆之宝02：《巴比伦大洪水记录板》

▲《巴比伦大洪水记录板》“The Flood Tablet ”，亚述，700BC，现收藏于大英博物馆

A second most important document is the babylonian story of the flood which was discovered in 1872，and was the first intimation for the public world that the story of the flood in the bible was in fact invented in ancient babylon, and  this tablet was written in 7century bc. and it was made of clay,

第二件非常重要的文物是《巴比伦大洪水记录板》，这件作品在1872年被发现，并首次向公众讲述了《圣经》中关于大洪水的故事，而故事的发生地点实际上是在古巴比伦。这件文物创作于公元前7世纪，由陶土制成。

and I think the third very important object  are the chess pieces form the island of Louis, which I found interesting  the whole of my life.They are something that witches all visitors.They made in 12th century out of ivory. when many people look at them they think they can talk to them, because they are so realistic and they are very beautiful, very fascinating and everybody who see them  remember them.

镇馆之宝03：《路易斯西洋棋》

▲《刘易斯西洋棋》“The Lewis Chessmen”，1150～1200AD，现收藏于大英博物馆

第三件非常重要的文物是《路易斯西洋棋》，我一直觉得这件作品非常有意思。这些棋子均于12世纪用象牙雕刻而成，吸引了很多参观者。当人们观看这件作品的时候，会产生一种能够与里面的人物进行交谈的感觉，因为这些棋子是如此的逼真、优美、迷人，令人一见难忘。

为什么我们需要博物馆？

Museums have a unique role to play in the world because the people who working in  museum their job is to research the collections and to explain them to the public and to tell the truth about them. So when people visit, they find out informations to look at things，they know they are been  told the truth by people who know what they are talking about, and this is a very unusual situation in the world because most people don’t tell the truth and they are corrupt.

在世界上，博物馆扮演着一种非常特殊的角色。博物馆的工作者不断研究这些文物，并向公众展示，告诉他们文物背后的真实故事。所以，当参观者看到这些信息标签时，他们就会知道是了解这件文物的研究者在讲述文物的故事。这在生活中并不是一个常见的情况，因为大多数的人不会说出真相，他们会有欺瞒行为。

130000件楔形文字板

▲大英博物馆馆藏楔形文字板

We have our collection about 130 thousands cuneiform tablets made of clay written in the ancient mathematics between 3000BC and  about the 1 century AD, very very large collection. and one of those tablets which I worked on turned out to be something remarkable. because it had on it the rules  for the ancient board game, and we have a example of the board, and the rules are  sufficient clear and we now know how to play this game and modern replica has been made, so the people could play it in their house today.

大英博物馆拥有超过130000件楔形文字板，均由陶土制成，上面刻着古老的数学问题。这些藏品从公元前3000年到公元1世纪，时间跨度很长，是一个非常庞大的收藏。我目前研究的文字板当中，有一件楔形文字板非常引人注目，上面专门刻有古代棋盘游戏的规则。

▲大英博物馆馆藏，最古老的游戏棋盘

我们有一个这样的棋盘，游戏规则也非常清楚，所以我们知道怎么去玩这个游戏。现代的棋盘复制品也被制作出来了，所以人们现在可以在家玩这个游戏。

▲最古老的游戏棋盘现代复制品

Part 2  大英博物馆副馆长策展人Sheila O’Connell

1Dear friends of Sanlianzhongdu, my name is Sheila O’Connell, I work at British museum in the department of prints  and drawings . I’m responsible for British prints . British prints started  long after Chinese prints and most of our prints are from the Ming period and the later, that is from the 17th  century up until the present day.

三联中读的朋友们，我是Sheila O’Connell，在大英博物馆的版画和绘画部门工作，负责英国版画。在中国版画出现很长一段时间之后，英国版画才出现。我们很多的版画都是来自于明朝以及之后的年代，相当于从17世纪开始一直到现在。

▲汉斯·斯隆爵士

The British museum was founded in 1753, when Hans Sloane who was a medical doctor. He died and he left huge collection to the nation of Britain .It was mainly what was then  called natural history objects for scientific research.but also a very large library, some wonderful prints and drawings, some Chinese pieces, and pieces of other parts of the world.

大英博物馆创建于1753年，当时有位医学家汉斯·斯隆爵士，在其去世后，将其大量的收藏品都捐给了英国。那批藏品在当时主要用于自然历史文物研究。此外，还包括一座大型博物馆，优美的版画和绘画，一些中国的文物以及来自世界其他地方的文物。

The British nation had also been left two other important libraries, and so eventually the parlement decided that it would accept this gifts and build a museum. and it had a lottery , people gambled to raise the money, to buy an old mansion in what was then the very noisy age of London.

▲图书馆

此外当时捐赠给国家的还有两座非常重要的图书馆，国会最终决定接受这份礼物，建造一座博物馆。为此还发行了彩票，人们抱着赌博的心理筹集了钱买下了一座古老的宅邸，表现了伦敦极其喧嚣的时代。

So in the early days the museum ,the library was very a  important part of the museum, and people would come on the guide tours of the museum. but after about 50 years, when the British government saw that in France the Louvre museum was grand and very impressive, the government decided that it was time that London also had very grand and impressive museum and started to rebuild the British Museum very slowly.

所以，早期博物馆中，图书馆是非常重要的组成部分，人们来到博物馆可以听到导游讲解。但是50年之后，当英国政府看到法国卢浮宫博物馆如此壮丽且令人难忘，政府认为是时候让伦敦也拥有这样一座壮观且令人难忘的博物馆了，于是开始慢慢建造大英博物馆。

▲大英博物馆内景

It took a long time, we can’t build building  so quickly as you can in china. any by then, the collections were growing, this is when in  the  early 19th century.and  that always be a very important interest in what we called classical antiquity, the ancient Roman Empire and Greek civilization.and collections were been made by wealthy British people of sculpture especially from those  countries.

博物馆的建造花了很长一段时间，我们毕竟没法像中国一样如此快速地完成建造。19世纪早期，收藏规模还在不断扩大，并且人们对古典的文物有着浓厚的兴趣，比如古罗马和古希腊文明。当时富裕的英国人搜集了很多藏品，特别是来自这两个地区的雕像。

The architecture of  the building which began rebuilt in the 1820s, and it took 20-30years to rebuild, but it based on the architecture of ancient Greece, which was at that time had the high status of architecture and it became for Europe the standard type of architecture for museums, because the museums like to look back the history of  that of period.

博物馆的建筑在1820年代重新建造，此次重建花了20-30年。该建筑以当时在建筑界极具代表性的古希腊风格建筑为基础，并成为了欧洲博物馆的标准建筑类型，因为博物馆钟情于那段历史。

三件镇馆之宝

镇馆之宝01：帕特农神庙石雕<Parthenon Sculpture>

▲大英博物馆，帕特农神庙石雕

The very famous pieces they came were collected by Lord Elgin who was an ambassador to the Ottoman empire in Turkey . at that time Turkey ruined Greece, and he was given permission to collect some of the sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens. beautiful sculpture, which is now one of the most famous pieces in the British museum. So the Parthenon Sculpture sometimes called the elegant marbles are one of the most famous pieces in British museum.

这是一件非常重要的文物，来自于收藏家埃尔金勋爵，他曾是土耳其奥斯曼帝国的大使。当时，土耳其侵略了希腊，并特许收藏家埃尔金勋爵到雅典的帕特农神庙里去收集雕像。这座优美的雕像现已成为大英博物馆中一件非常著名的藏品。所以，帕特农神庙石雕也被称为优雅的大理石雕像，是大英博物馆中一件十分重要的藏品。

▲大英博物馆，帕特农神庙《半人马》石雕

镇馆之宝02：罗塞塔石碑<Rosetta Stone>

▲《罗塞特石碑》“The Rosetta Stone”，古埃及，196BC，现收藏于大英博物馆

and another very important piece that came from the beginning of 19th century is the Rosetta Stone. Rosetta is the  English name for a place in Egypt called Rashid. Well, a large stone as stele rather like the ones you have in china was discovered which had the same text in three languages, in Greek, in Egyptians, and also in  Hieroglyphic, which are the old Egyptian text  which until that time nobody could not read. And because the same text  was that in other languages eventually after some decades, it became  possible to read Hieroglyphic, and it was a very important development  for the study of the Egyptian antiquity and Egyptian civilization.

另外一件非常重要的文物是《罗塞塔石碑》，收藏于19世纪初。罗塞塔是埃及的一个叫做Rashid地方的英文名。当然，这么大型的石碑就像是你们中国发现的石碑一样，这上面有三种语言文字。希腊文、古埃及文以及古埃及象形文。古埃及形象文字是一种古老的埃及文字，到那时已经没有人能读懂。由于用不同的文字表达同样的意思，所以经过了几十年之后，古埃及的象形文字已经有了读懂的可能。这对于研究埃及的文物和文明来说是一个非常大的进步。

▲《罗塞特石碑》“The Rosetta Stone”三种文字细节

版画和绘画部门

so the treasures I have mentioned the Parthenon sculpture, the Rosetta Stone, and I want to mention something in my department, department of prints and drawings. we have something of the most important drawings in any European collections, especially drawings by very famous artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and also British artist like Joseph Mallord William Turner, french artist Edgar degas,Gauguin，and also contemporary  artist that say David Hockney, the very important collection.

所以之前我提到的镇馆之宝，一个是《帕特农神庙石雕》，一个是《罗塞塔石碑》，现在我想介绍一下我所在的版画和绘画部门的藏品。我们有所有欧洲藏品中最重要的绘画作品，很多作品都出自著名艺术家，比如米开朗基罗、达·芬奇、波提切利，当然还包括英国的艺术家透纳、法国艺术家德加、高更，以及当代的艺术家大卫·霍克尼，他们的作品都是馆中非常重要的藏品。

And also we also have prints made by Dürer and the great German artists of the renaissance period, and as well as french artists, Italian artists and more recent the American artists.The Asian collections  including  important  Chinese collections are in another department I know no much about these because specialty is European art.

▲丢勒，《犀牛》，版画

此外，我们还有丢勒的版画，他是文艺复兴时期一位非常伟大的德国艺术家。当然还有来自法国艺术家、意大利艺术家以及后期的美国艺术家的作品。亚洲的收藏包括重要的中国文物，这一块属于其他部门，对此我不是十分了解，因为我的专长是欧洲艺术。

Most of the collections came in bought, I could say, they were collections put together by private collectors, which then the museum acquired and purchased or if we are very lucky this people bequest the collections they left in their wills when they died. and that’s how our collections have been built up. but we also buy individual pieces when we can, when our government is helping us. and we do have nowadays we do a lot of  fund  raising to  help purchasing things.

很多的收藏品是购买得来，私人收藏家把藏品放在一起，然后博物馆通过购买来获得这些藏品。我们有时有幸遇到一些私人收藏家，他们会在遗嘱中说明在去世后对这些收藏进行捐赠。这就是我们馆藏一点点建立的过程。不过，在政府的帮助下，我们也会在允许的情况下购买单件的作品，最近我们也会募集资金，帮助购买藏品。

镇馆之宝03 ：达·芬奇 《圣母子》

If I think the drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, some of my favorite which also favorite for other people.He does made a lots of drawings. in a very rapid quick sketches which used later on in order to create paintings. I think some of my favorite ones are the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ ,with the Christ child with Jesus Christ as a baby. and he clearly made this  drawing from a model he looked at his really mother with the  child, and the child is really  a very charming drawings.

我个人有一些十分喜爱的达·芬奇的作品，我想这些作品也应该是广受赞誉的。他创作了很多作品。在进行速写后，再以此进行绘画。在所有的创造性作品中，我认为我最喜欢的一件就是圣母玛利亚，也就是耶稣基督的母亲和她的孩子在一起，画中耶稣还是一个小宝宝。他创作这件作品的原型来于他自己的母亲和孩子在一起的样子，这个孩子也画得非常好。

拿破仑政治版画

Some of objects  in my responsibility are political prints, there is a great tradition in England especially in Britain of making a prints about the government basically. some are very funny, some are not so beautiful, but there are otherwise they are very good artists  who are making these drawings and tell them to make prints. and if I can mention a exhibition I did two years ago, it was mainly about prints of Napoléon, the great french emperor and general, who the British were very frightened of, because he was a very successful general, and in 1803, the British was very anxious that Napoléon might invade.

我所在的部门还收藏了一些政治版画。英国有一个非常古老的传统，就是把关于政府的内容用版画表现出来。其中一些非常有趣，也有一些不那么美观，但是这些作品的主人都是非常优秀的艺术家，他们创作了这些画作并且告诉他们去制作版画。我在两年前做了一个展览，主要是关于拿破仑的版画，他是一位非常著名的法国将军和君主。英国人非常怕他，因为他是一位非常成功的将军。1803年时，英国非常担心拿破仑的入侵。

and so the way that this was  adopted  with as propaganda, was to start making  images of Napoléonas a very small person, so he was like a child, he was drawn as the same size of the child, but a very bad evil child. because he was so small, it was going to be possible to defeat him.and actually, he was normal height for a man in that period.but everybody in England now thinks he is little and he is very small, and this was because the propaganda of the British cartoonists convinced everyone that it was the truth. 

所以就采用了版画来进行政治宣传，开始制作拿破仑的形象，把他画成一个非常矮小的人，就像一个孩子，但是一个非常坏的邪恶的小孩。由于他非常矮小，看起来也就不是那么不可战胜了。不过事实上，他是那个年代标准的男人的身高。不过，英国人现在普遍认为他很矮小，这是因为英国漫画家的宣传使得人们相信这是事实。

镇馆之宝04：《凯旋门》Triumphal Arch

▲《凯旋门》Triumphal Arch，丢勒

And then let me think of one more thing, I will think of a huge print by  Albrecht Dürer，the great German renaissance artist who was a painter, but really more famous as a prints maker, especially in woodcut. and it’s a very different style from Chinese woodcut, very delicate.and he worked especially for the emperor Maximilian，an emperor for Austria. 

接下来，我想提另外一件作品，是德国文艺复兴时期著名艺术家丢勒的作品，他也是一个画家，不过他的版画更为有名，尤其是木版画。这跟中国的木版画非常不一样，非常精致。他特别为奥地利的马克西米利安皇帝服务。

And one of the things that he made on many many sheets of paper was a huge arch. It’s about three meters height huge made of paper, higher than the ceiling. and there is a very few examples that survive in intact, most of them are damaged because they are on paper, but the British museum has one of this huge prints, and it was displayed quite recently in a small exhibition, explaining how it was made and who the artist, who helped  during with this. and it is one of our great treasures.it came to the  museum from a British sculptor called Joseph Nollekens who left to the British museum around 1810 and we’ve had it ever since.

丢勒曾经用很多纸张创作了一道拱门，这个巨大的纸张制作的三米高拱门比天花板还要高。这是保存下来的藏品中罕见的一件完整作品，因为是用纸张制作的，很多作品都遭受到了破坏。大英博物馆拥有这件巨大的作品，并且最近在一个小展览上展出，向观众展示了它的制作过程，并介绍了作品创作的艺术家以及创作期间提供了帮助的艺术家。这是我们的一件重要馆藏，来自于英国雕塑家约瑟夫·诺勒肯斯，他在1810年左右把这件作品捐赠给了大英博物馆，并于馆中收藏至今。

博物馆的意义

we have about 6 million visitors very year, and the museum is not  such a  huge space, so some areas which are very popular, get very very crowded.and one of the most popular area is the area devoted to Egyptian civilization, ancient Egyptians civilization, especially the mummies which are the bodies who are taken from tombs and they are been erupt and put into a very elaborate coffins.

我们每年都有6百万参观者，博物馆空间并不是非常大，所以有些特别受欢迎的展区就非常拥挤。我们最受欢迎的一个展区是埃及文明展区，古埃及文明尤其像木乃伊这种从墓中挖出来的身体，在发掘之后被放入一个非常精致的棺材中。

I remember as a child going to the British museum to see these, every English child to see them and they come with school parties, and they draws them, and they lays on the floor, and it became so crowed. as a curator I try to avoid that gallery, because it’s so busy.and every years we seems to get more and more visitors which is wonderful, a lot of Chinese visitors now.many many, I often hear  Chinese spoken  in the museum  is wonderful. Of course we have very good  Chinese collections as well. wonderful ceramic collections which actually was collected by Percival David in the 1920s, he was a diplomat in china and he built up wonderful collection which officially belongs to the universities of London, but it’s  on show in the British museums, and it is marvelous  pieces, really beautiful.

我记得我以前还是孩子的时候会走进博物馆去看这些展品，每个英国的小孩都会来看，他们有时候会以学校团队的形式一起来，他们画展品，躺在地板上，空间就会变得拥挤。作为策展人我会试着避开那些区域，因为人实在太多。每年，我们都要接待越来越多的参观者，这当然非常棒，现在也有很多中国的参观者。我经常听到中国人在展厅里说话，这很好。当然，我们也有非常棒的中国文物收藏，这些精美的陶瓷品是珀西瓦尔·大卫在1920年收藏的，他在中国是一位外交官，收集了很多精美的藏品，这些藏品均属于伦敦大学，但是现在在大英博物馆里展出，这些都是令人惊叹的、优美的作品。