The British Museum in London has announced that it is planning to make digital copies of all of its objects. The process of digitizing millions of artifacts will take about 5 years.
The announcement comes after the museum admitted that 2000 artifacts were missing from its vast collection. About 250 had already been recovered. According to museum a spokesperson,the objects may have been stolen by people working there.
The British Museum is among the largest in the world. It has many world-famous artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone, a collection of Egyptian mummies, as well as ancient jewelry.
Digitizing the whole collection will have two main objectives – to improve the museum’s security and allowing the public access objects that are not on display.
The Rosetta Stone with writing in Greek and Egyptian letters, as well as ancient hieroglyphics
Image: Hans Hillewaert / CC BY-SA 4.0