Two very different touring exhibitions are showing in Canberra this summer.

A History of the World in 100 Objects, from the British Museum at the National Museum of Australia, tells a two-million-year story through works from the collection of the British Museum. It is based on former BM Director Neil MacGregor’s highly successful 2010 BBC Radio series and book of the same name.

The touring version, for logistical reasons, does not have all the same objects. However, it covers the same territory, with a vast range of artefacts from cultures all over the globe. Less ambitious in the period it covers – a mere 130 years – but grander as a display is Versailles: Treasures from the Palace at the National Gallery of Australia. Drawn from the collection of the most celebrated of European palaces, Versailles presents the art, design, architectural and garden patronage of the French monarchs of the second half of the seventeenth and the eighteenth century. Interestingly, Enlightenment ideas not only inspired the birth of the modern museum, but also led to the French Revolution and the end of absolutist rule in France and all that Versailles stands for.