I always enjoy R. Austin Freeman's "Eye of Osiris"; this is partly set in the
British Museum, mainly the Egyptology Galleries and the Round Reading Room. It
must also be one of the earliest references to applications of science in
archaeology as it involves the radiography of mummies (more precisely the
identification of a manslaughter victim by means of known pathology which had
been substituted for a mummy. This was written before the First World War.
Austin Freeman's numerous other works contain other archaeological ideas and
more than once hinge on parallels between forensic and archaeological science.
More recently there is Jonathan Gash's hero Lovejoy being slightly destructive
to the British Museum/British Library in "The Very Last Gambado" where he lifts
a copy of Magna Carta. Another of the Lovejoy novels has its denouemnent in an
unnamed museum which is clearly Colchester Castle. Other Lovejoy novels are
quite instructive on how to pass off your fakes as museum exhibits so may not
be entirely PC reading for museum professionals.
Then there is always "The Man from Greek and Roman" (I forget the author) about
de-accessioning scandals at the Met.
Peter Northover
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