[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2210330256.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe British Museum was briefly evacuated Saturday after staff discovered what was described as a \u201csuspicious device\u201d inside a restroom, prompting a police response at one of the world\u2019s most visited museums.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Metropolitan Police were called to the museum\u2019s Bloomsbury headquarters around 2:50 p.m. local time after reports of a suspicious package, according to\u00a0The Independent.<\/em>\u00a0Officers investigated the object and later determined it posed no threat. Visitors were allowed back into the museum shortly after 4 p.m. and normal operations resumed.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement, the museum said it had also received what it described as \u201cmalicious communications\u201d before the evacuation.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe safety and security of our visitors, colleagues and volunteers is always our highest priority,\u201d a museum spokesperson told\u00a0The Independent<\/em>, thanking visitors and staff for their cooperation during the evacuation. The museum declined to elaborate on the nature of the communications, citing the ongoing police matter.<\/p>\n \n\tThe incident unfolded at one of Britain\u2019s busiest cultural institutions. The British Museum welcomed more than\u00a0six million visitors last year,\u00a0making it one of the most visited museums in the world.<\/p>\n \n\tSaturday\u2019s evacuation comes less than a week after the museum\u00a0postponed a lecture\u00a0on ancient Israel that had been scheduled as part of Jewish Culture Month, citing security concerns.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the museum, officials learned that a significant number of registered attendees planned to disrupt the event, raising concerns that the program would not be able to proceed safely. After discussions with organizers and security partners, the museum opted to postpone the lecture to a later date.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe British Museum fully recognizes the importance of lawful protest and freedom of expression in a democratic society,\u201d the institution said in a statement earlier this week. \u201cEqually, we have a responsibility to ensure that events hosted within the museum can proceed safely, securely and without intimidation for speakers, staff and visitors alike.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe postponement sparked criticism from several public figures, including historian Simon Schama, who called the decision \u201cabsolutely the wrong decision,\u201d as well as Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and former U.K. health secretary Wes Streeting. Jewish organizations also urged the museum to reschedule the event as soon as possible.<\/p>\n \n\tMuseum officials have not suggested that Saturday\u2019s evacuation was connected to the earlier controversy, and police have not indicated any link between the two incidents. Still, the evacuation comes at a tense moment for the institution as it navigates heightened security concerns surrounding public programming.<\/p>\n \n\tNo injuries were reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/british-museum-evacuated-suspicious-device-security-alert-1234787980\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2210330256.jpg?w=1024″] The British Museum was briefly evacuated Saturday after staff discovered what was described as a \u201csuspicious device\u201d inside a restroom, prompting a police response at one of the world\u2019s most visited museums. The Metropolitan Police were called to the museum\u2019s Bloomsbury headquarters around 2:50 p.m. local time after reports of a suspicious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1965583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1965583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1965583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1965583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1965583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}