The museum has undergone a transformation in the last few years. The Great Court was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in December 2000 following a £30 million development programme which saw the creation of this, the largest covered public square in Europe. The two-acre square, which had been hidden from public view since 1857, also houses the world famous round Reading Room which inspired people such as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Oscar Wilde, Leon Trotsky, Mahatma Ghandi George Bernard Shaw, and Virginia Woolf who spent many hours there.

The centrepiece of the anniversary celebrations will be the opening of the King’s Library which is currently being restored and will hold a new exhibition “Enlightenment: Rethinking the World” from autumn 2003. This great room, which formerly housed the library of King George III, is the earliest part of the present museum building and represents the finest and largest neo-classical interior in London. The exhibition will explore the way Europeans in the late 18th century and early 19th perceived the world.

Another anniversary event will be the “Art and Memory” exhibition in the Royal Court Gallery. One hundred objects from the museum’s collections will be brought together to investigate the subject of memory across different cultures and time. Artefacts dating from the 4th millennium BC will be featured as well as evidence of deliberate attempts to distort and efface memory.

Other exhibitions include:

 Kazari: Decoration and display in Japan: in association with the Suntory Museum of Art and the Japan Society February 5 – April 13, 2003
 Medicine Man: Sir Henry Wellcome and his Collections June 26 – November 16.
 Treasure: Finding our Past: amazing discoveries made by ordinary people November 7, 2003 – February 29, 2004