The British Museum of Antiquities is an establishment in London, England that houses various antiquities and relics from around the world.
Location[]
Around 1933 A.D the British Museum was under the direction of a single Curator who presided over a staff of curators, each assigned to various branches of study within the museum; Baltus Hafez acted as the curator of the ancient Egyptian collections until his replacement, Evelyn O'Connell, took over. The museum housed various collections of antique vases, Nineveh sculptures, Eastern artworks and artifacts, and various Egyptian artifacts; above the Egyptian displays was a skylight that was left open in 1933 due to repairs and within the collection was an assortment of ancient Egyptian mummies, some on display within their opened sarcophagi while others were placed within glass cases.
The museum also possessed a number of secret areas that only the most knowledgeable staff knew of, one notable instance being a storage warehouse that played host to elaborate statues and ancient pillars, most hearkening back to the times of ancient Egypt.
History[]
Origin[]
Dedicated in 1753 after taking in the various collections of Sir Hans Sloane, the British Museum was established to house various artifacts and artworks from around the globe and throughout the years, the collections expanded from rare books and ancient artifacts to fossils and artifacts from ancient civilisations.
Rebirth of Imhotep[]
The museum was run by a number of curators assigned to various positions, one such curator being the Egyptian Baltus Hafez, who surreptitiously took a leave of absence from his position as the curator of ancient Egyptian displays with his cult that he had founded to head directly to Egypt, where they reached the Sahara deserts so as to unearth the ancient cursed High Priest of Osiris, Imhotep, whom they would direct to combat the ancient cursed warlord known as the Scorpion King and follow as devoted disciples. After unearthing the mummy, along with the Book of the Dead, the item that might bring Imhotep back to life, the cult returned to London and abducted a British Museum employee, Evelyn O'Connell before returning to the British Museum. Once the cultists had reached the museum, they began to perform a ritual within a basement used to house additional artifacts: the cultists had tied Evelyn down onto a sacrificial altar and arranged themselves in a circle around the preserved High Priest and began to chant as Hafez himself read the spells to restore life from the Book of the Dead.
The adventurer Rick O'Connell, accompanied by the Medjai chieftain Ardeth Bay, infiltrated the museum to rescue Evelyn and stop the cult from restoring the mummy to life: while they made their way through its halls, however, a number of the mummies on display came to life after being in contact with the readings from the Book of the Dead. The curator Hafez read on until the mummy was brought to life and demanded to know the year, to which the curator responded that it was the Year of the Scorpion, a notion that brought the restored mummy's cracked visage an evil grin which was replaced with a look of astonishment as he saw who had entered the room: a woman named Meela Nais, whom Imhotep saw as his lover Anck-Su-Namun, the woman declared herself as Anck-Su-Namun resurrected but Imhotep knew that she was only restored in body, but after a reading from the Book of the Dead, Anck-Su-Namun would be brought back. Hafez and his enforcer Lock-Nah had brought a chest that had housed the Bracelet of Anubis, an artifact that would lead its wearer to the Scorpion King, but found instead a statue of a baseball player within it; Hafez decided not to inform Imhotep of this, and Meela presented the mummy with Evelyn, whom Meela knew that Imhotep would wish to see killed, at which Meela signalled for Evelyn to be thrown into a basin full of fire; just then, Rick O'Connell rushed in and saved Evelyn from being thrown into the fires. Rick and Evelyn then armed themselves with firearms and, along with Ardeth Bay, opened fire on the cultists before escaping as Imhotep produced a blue-and-gold urn and opened it, unleashing a contingent of mummified soldiers, which he gave the orders to kill the escapees.
That night after the battle, Imhotep stood atop a parapet in the museum with Meela, contemplating his plans for domination after defeating the Scorpion King, an act that would grant the mummy the power to either destroy the world or to spare it with the Scorpion King's armies, the Army of Anubis. Hafez, however, reluctantly brought it to the mummy's attention that the Spear of Osiris, which Imhotep would require to reach the Scorpion King, was taken by the O'Connell family, but Imhotep knew that the road to Ahm Shere, the resting place of the Scorpion King, was one of peril and danger, and dismissed this concern, turning his attention instead to projecting the image of ancient Egypt in Meela Nais' mind, at which she believed that the rotted mummy at her side was Imhotep restored and that she was once more Anck-Su-Namun; at this, she kissed Imhotep, so deep in her trance that she did not see the rotted mummy that she was kissing rotting further.
Behind the Scenes[]
The building used to film the exterior scenes of the British Museum of Antiquities was actually the University College London; the actual British Museum was undergoing reconstruction at the time and was covered in scaffolding. The interior scenes were filmed in Shepherd’s Bush, London at the Dimco buildings, which are most famous for being used as the Acme factory in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.