Then I went to see the treasure itself in the British Museum. While the pieces themselves were extraordinary – showing a degree of craftsmanship and ingenuity that can scarcely be matched today – the way they were displayed was a colossal let-down. One of the greatest – as well as most popular – collection of exhibits in the museum had been shoehorned into a dingy passageway between two larger galleries. The lighting was hopeless, the information sketchy and the whole effect oddly underwhelming.