The British Museum Act 1963 (c. 24) is an act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

. It replaced the British Museum Act 1902 ( 2 Edw. 7. c. 12). It was introduced by the second ministry of the Conservative Prime Minister

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...

. The act forbids the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

and the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

from disposing of their holdings, except in a small number of special circumstances. In May 2005 a judge of the

High Court of England and Wales The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...

ruled that

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

-looted

Old Master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

artworks held at the British Museum could not be returned.Ruling tightens grip on Parthenon marbles
''The Guardian'', 27 May 2005. Retrieved 5 March 2010. The act also made the Natural History Museum an independent organisation from the British Museum, with its own board of trustees.

Provisions

Repealed enactments

Section 13(5) of the act repealed 18 enactments, listed in the fourth schedule to the act.

Short title, commencement and extent

Section 13(1) of the act provided that the act may be cited as the "British Museum Act 1963". Section 13(2) of the act provided that the act would come into force on a day appointed by the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...

by statutory instrument. Section 1 of the (SI 1963/1546) provided that the act would come into force on 30 September 1963.

Notes

References

External links