They are something we take for granted today, but before the 1750s publicly owned museums didn't exist. Founded in 1753 and open to the public in 1759, the British Museum is the world's first ever national public museum, and arguably one of the best with more than eight million artefacts spanning two million years of history. Highlights include the ancient Egyptian Rosetta Stone, the Benin Bronzes and classical Greek sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens.