Collections enquiries
Bristol Museums looks after collections from across the world. These are divided into eight different curatorial departments (Applied Art, Archaeology, Fine Art, Asian and Islamic Art, Biology, Geology, History and World Cultures).
Please read the guidance below before making your enquiry.
Please direct your initial enquiry to us using the contact form below. Please do not bring objects to the museum without prior arrangement with a curator. Please note that museum staff are unable to offer valuations, please contact an auction house or dealer for this.
Donating an object
Bristol Museums is an accredited museum and has a responsibility to protect and preserve objects within our collections.
If you’d like to enquire about donating an object, please check the guidance below for the relevant curatorial department initially to see whether they are able to answer your enquiry, or if your object falls within their collecting remit.
Bequests and financial donations
If you’re planning to donate an object during your lifetime or bequeath an object in your Will to Bristol Museums, please contact our Development Team first so that we can advise whether we will be able to accept the gift. Please also consider whether you might be able to leave a pecuniary or residuary donation in order to support us in this endeavour.
Items made of or including ivory
Due to recent changes in the law, which mean that no-one is allowed to buy or sell items made of or including ivory in the UK, we have seen an increased level of people wanting to pass on their ivory items to us. Due to the volume of enquiries, we will only be able to accept items in exceptional circumstances. Each curatorial area deals with such offers in different ways but an initial enquiry should be sent using the form below. The relevant curator will either immediately decline due to lack of relevance or may ask for photos and provenance to make their decision. Please do not post or drop-off items without permission.
Please note it is not illegal to own or gift ivory. You can find information from the UK Government website about what you need to do to buy, sell or hire out items made of or containing ivory in the UK.
Enquiring about our collections
Archaeology
The Archaeology Collection has been formed over 200 years and contains material from the Mediterranean and the British Isles, with a focus on finds from the Bristol area. It includes material from over 3500 archaeological sites, individual finds, antiquarian collections and objects acquired via the Treasure process.
Today, Bristol Museum is the recognised repository for archaeological archives from Bristol and South Gloucestershire that have been generated through the planning process. We only collect material from outside of this geographical area in exceptional circumstances.
We welcome research enquiries and questions that relate to specific objects or sites in the collection. Enquiries need to be as detailed as possible. Please explore our Collections Online before contacting us to find further information and the relevant accession or register numbers.
We welcome offers of donations from Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Archaeological material must have been legally acquired. If artefacts have been discovered through metal-detecting, the appropriate permissions must be in place. Artefact/s that may fall under the definition of Treasure (under the 1996 Treasure Act) must be reported to Portable Antiquities Scheme within 14 days.
Our object identification service is limited to material that can be recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. We are unable to offer an object identification service for archaeological items or antiquities discovered outside of the UK.
Find out more about our British Archaeology collection
Biology
The biology collections are extensive and diverse, comprising approximately 700,000 specimens – including fungi, plants, insects, birds, mammals and reptiles. These contribute significantly to understanding the biodiversity and ecology of our planet.
We welcome research enquiries and questions that relate to specific specimens in the collection. Please do provide as much detail as possible.
We provide species identification service.
Artists, photographers, historians, naturalists and scientific researchers are welcome to study the collection via appointment with the curator.
All offers of donations will be explored according to legislation and ethics, in line with our Collecting Policy.
We welcome offers of donations of botanical and zoological specimens and associated ephemera (e.g., notebooks, models, equipment, illustrations, photographs, digital scans) of significance to the old Avon area.
We cannot accept donations of world biological specimens, for example coral, turtles, tigers etc. If they are species that fall under CITES please contact DEFRA’s office in Bristol. You can also email regarding a retrospective CITES licence.
We cannot accept any bird eggs collected after 1954, or any that were collected prior to this date with no information on specifically where and when they were collected.
Find out more and explore the Biology collection
Geology
The Geology Collection holds approximately 600,000 rock, mineral and fossil specimens along with other material such as books, models, thin sections, geological maps and field notebooks.
The collection’s strength is in regional material, including local RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Site) locations such as Aust Cliff, the Avon Gorge, Writhlington and the Portishead Coast. Specimens are mainly represented from the strata of the Bristol region. The collection also contains significant comparative material from elsewhere in the British Isles and the rest of the world. The collection includes radioactive material which is managed according to UK legislation.
The collections were founded in 1823 as the Museum of the Bristol Institution for Science Literature and the Arts. The original Institution and its collections were significant in the development of the field of palaeontology and to this day contain internationally significant collections of Jurassic marine reptiles.
A significant library and archive contains material linked to the early development of geological ideas and the Bristol Institution. In 1998 the geology collections were given Designated status for their historic and scientific value.
We welcome research enquiries that relate to specific specimens in the collection. Requests for destructive sampling will be considered in conjunction with the museum’s Conservation experts. Please provide as much detail as possible.
We welcome offers of donations of geological specimens and associated ephemera (e.g. notebooks, models, equipment, illustrations, photographs, digital scans) in line with our Collecting Policy. All material must be obtained legally.
We provide an identification service for geological enquiries, however if you think you have found a meteorite please contact the Natural History Museum, London.
Artists, photographers, historians, geologists, palaeontologists and other scientific researchers are welcome to study the collection via appointment with the curator.
Find out more and explore our Geology collection
Visual Arts – Art, Applied Art, Asian and Islamic art
Art
The Fine Art collection comprises paintings, sculpture, works on paper, installation and moving image art from the Renaissance period through to the present day.
We can only respond to a limited amount of enquiries from researchers that relate to specific works in the collection. Enquiries need to be as detailed as possible. Please explore our Collections Online before contacting us to find further information and the relevant accession or register numbers.
We welcome offers of donations, please refer to the Acquisitions and Disposals Policy. Please be aware that acquisitions can take several months to a year to process.
We do not offer an object identification service. Please try private galleries and auction houses. If you have spotted a Banksy please contact Pest Control Office who can authenticate Banksy’s work.
Find out more and explore our Fine Art collection
Applied Art
The Applied Art collection includes ceramics, glass, furniture, metalwork, jewellery and flat textiles (items of dress form part of the History collection).
Items made in Bristol or used in the city form part of the Designated City of Bristol collection. Bristol ceramics e.g. Delftware (tin-glazed earthenware) and Bristol porcelain are particularly well-represented.
We welcome offers of donations to the collection; however capacity for this is limited and we are unlikely to be able to accept whole collections.
Explore our Applied Art collection
Asian and Islamic Art
The collection of Asian and Islamic Art includes objects from China, Japan, South Asia and the Islamic world. It holds Designated status from Arts Council England as being of national/international importance. The items range in date from about 2,500 BCE to the present day.
We welcome offers of donations.
Explore the Asian and Islamic Art collection
World Archaeology
We look after around 10,000 items from ancient Egypt. The development of the collection was driven by two main factors: the desire of worldwide travellers to acquire antiquities, and the opportunity for museums and private collectors to acquire finds through sponsorship of British organised excavations. The main benefit of objects from excavations is that we know the exact find spot and in some cases we even have drawings and photos from original excavations so we can see objects in situ. Our relatively small collection of ancient Assyrian archaeology includes two large panels from rooms in palaces in Nimrud.
We also have two important collections of watercolour paintings. One made at ancient sites in Mexico by Adela Breton, a Victorian traveller, archaeologist and artist, and the other in the ancient Egyptian tomb of Seti I, made by Giovanni Belzoni in the early 1800s.
We are not actively collecting in these areas. We are only able to answer enquiries on specific items in the existing collections.
Find out more and explore the World Archaeology collection
World Cultures
The World Cultures collections are made up of items used by people from the Americas, Africa and the Pacific. There are about 10,000 in total ranging from tiny pottery beads to full-size native American canoes, from huge bark-cloth masks from Papua New Guinea to a ball of string from the Congo. There are painted coats from Canada, a quilted horse armour from Nigeria and initiation costumes from South Africa. The collections reflect domestic life (such as cooking equipment & furniture), work (e.g. agricultural tools & weaving equipment), technology (such as metal-working tools), ritual (power figures, masks & medicine), and the different stages of life, from baby carriers to toys to funerary masks.
The collections were mainly brought together during the 19th and early 20th century during the time of Empire and colonial expansion. Many items were stolen or taken unethically from their communities, for example during the conversion to Christianity or when people had been made reliant on European systems of control and coercion. Others were bought or traded fairly, given as gifts but for a large part of the collection we don’t have enough information to know for certain.
We are committed to continuing our repatriation work and reuniting originating communities with their cultural treasures.
Most of our collecting in this area now focuses on contemporary material and art from indigenous artists and makers. We are only able to answer enquiries on specific items in the existing collection.
Explore the World Cultures collection
Contact form
Please make sure you have read through the guidance above before sending in your enquiry – thank you.