In Western Europe, after Rich’s death, his collection of antiquities was bought by the British Museum. Due to lack of enthusiasm only a small sum of money was paid for it. Despite the relative unimportance of the public display, in the 1830s the antiquities gathered by Rich would be of paramount importance for the future development of Mesopotamian archaeology. One of the visitors to the museum was the German-born Jules Mohl (1806–76), an Arabist who had decided to move to Paris, at the time the Mecca for European Orientalist scholars (McGetchin 2003).