23rd April 2007, 02:47 PM
It may also be the case that some of the "foreign trips" would be related to arrangements for bringing collections of material from museums overseas for special one-off exhibitions at the BM. These are generally excellent and give members of the public the chance to see and learn about sites and artefacts that normally they would only see if they went abroad - or more likely wouldn't see at all. It would be a poor show if our national museum were criticised for doing this kind of work.