Museum Secrets

Alison Pollard, Lecturer at Oxford University, takes us to meet a very special marble table in the Ashmolean’s Arundel Collection, which was repurposed as a tombstone for a beloved pug dog.

Doug the …

Podcast host Lucie Dawkins takes us to meet a Tang Dynasty Camel, who came to Oxford in the suitcase of a Jewish refugee Paul Jacobsthal.

Tang Dynasty Camel – View it here

If you want to take a closer …

Lena Fritsch, the Ashmolean Museum’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, shares a story about the colourful prints of Peter Hedegaard. In them, she found a hidden connection with her own father, …

Shailendra Bhandare shares some very special coins with one of the first images of Buddha as a future saviour. He reflects on the way that humans have always been eager to imagine saviour figures, to…

In this episode, host Lucie Dawkins reveals the Ancient Greek art of styling pubic hair, and why it gives us important clues to understanding ancient sculptures.

1. Cast of the Terme Boxer – View this…

Jim Harris joins host Lucie Dawkins to talk about detachable genitalia in the Cast Gallery at the Ashmolean Museum, and the history of prudishness in ancient art. Jim Harris is the Andrew W Mellon Te…

The Director of the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, Xa Sturgis, takes a walk around the museum's Still Life Gallery, pondering over time and asparagus.

Still Life of Fruit and Flowers, Clara …

The curators at the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum have been recording bite-sized tales of the wonderful, and sometimes unexpected, life of a museum, and we can’t wait to share them with you…