British Museum Deputy departs
Leader of botched investigation is out as theft review published
Also in this edition: admission price hikes, Pre-Raphaelite homecoming, PM museum proposal, Oprah’s portrait, Nottingham museum fears
Happy Friday.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. And no, not for the reason you think. There’s a sweet few days every year where even the most packed-and-popular of cultural institutions see an emptying out of their galleries as people’s attentions turn to shopping, Xmas catch-ups and travels home to single beds in their childhood bedrooms. Those days are next week. They will see a fall in admissions that will make visiting a total bliss. (I can pretty much guarantee next Saturday’s Christmas Eve-Eve will be a calm oasis in even the most blockbuster of venues). I suggest you take advantage of it. Not least because it’s followed by a monumental spike in visits as people return the following week to seek some culture/time away from their families. Embrace the festivities while you can I say.
And thank you all for voting in my poll last week too. Brilliantly — but massively unsurprisingly — it confirmed that you all visit a hell of a lot of museums and galleries. One third of you have visited more than TWENTY in 2023! Over 60% of you have visited more than ten. Those are huge numbers, and I’m very pleased to see such strong support for our cultural venues. It does remind me that I have a long list of articles I’m planning on writing featuring my recommendations for which museums, galleries and exhibitions to visit in 2024. Based on these poll results, the appetite is strong. I better get typing!
But for now: onto the news!
— maxwell
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Need To Know
Review prompts Deputy’s departure
The Deputy Director of the British Museum who led the botched investigation into thefts from the museum’s collection has left his post. Jonathan Williams — who had agreed to step back from his duties until the conclusion of an external review — has now gone. The museum would not give details on the date of Williams' departure, nor whether he had left voluntarily or was pushed. The museum’s Chair, George Osborne, told the BBC “the museum did not respond adequately” to the allegations they first received in 2021. (Read more)
The news came the day after the external review into the debacle was published. Its findings reveal 850 of the 2,000 stolen or damaged objects are missing and feared unlikely to ever be recovered. 500 remain in the collection but are damaged, meaning the suspect removed the valuable materials (sometimes with tools permanently harming them) to sell for scrap. 351 have been returned (all but one by the ignored academic who first alerted the museum to concerns after he bought them on eBay). The Sunday Times reported the suspect — thought to be a senior curator — made around £100,000 in total over 30 years from these actions. Osborne revealed this person “has not been talking or co-operating” with investigations.
All 36 recommendations contained in the review have been accepted by the trustees. They say the museum must keep a comprehensive register of all items in its collections, that it should make more frequent inventory checks, and that the museum’s Directorate should adopt a "modern and inclusive approach" to management. (Read more)
Price hikes at major museums
The Louvre in Paris is hiking its admission prices by 30%. Visitors will from next month have to pay €22 to enter, up from €17. It’s the first price hike since 2017 and is due to the museum’s effort to offset an 88% rise in energy costs and to support its free admission programmes geared towards local residents.
While the increase was not directly tied to 2024’s Paris Olympics, it’s seen as part of a larger trend of rising prices across the French capital. There’s a suggestion tickets for the city’s metro will double for the duration of the Games for example. (Read more)
Meanwhile, Berlin’s state museums will also increase admission fees next year to cover rising costs, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation announced. Entry prices across the group’s 17 museums vary, but all will go up. For example, admission to the Hamburger Bahnhof, the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Pergamon or the Neues Museum will rise to €14 from €12. The Humboldt Forum, though, will remain free. (Read more)
News from the UK
Art collection returns | Birmingham’s world-famous collection of Pre-Raphaelite art is going on back on display in the city or the first time in more than five years. It’ll be shown in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s Gas Hall in a special homecoming exhibition opening in February marking the first phase of a reopening of the venue following its closure for essential maintenance work. (Read more)
Frost backs reunification | The former chief Brexit negotiator wants more European co-operation — in order to reunite the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens. Lord Frost wants a pan-Euro effort to bring the marbles back to Greece, and says the UK should make a grand gesture to create closer diplomatic and cultural relations between the two countries. He also wants countries such as Denmark, Germany, Austria and France, which also have marbles, to return them too. (Read more)
The prime museum | Someone wants to honour the UK’s Prime Ministers by setting up a museum dedicated to the highest elected office in the land. Yes, really. Historian Sir Anthony Seldon has proposed the venue, but the accompanying 185-page document admits it “might meet with some intellectual opposition and criticism from within the museum community.” Former PM Sir John Major, and failed would-be PM Penny Mordaunt, are backers. (Read more)
The golden gun | A golden AK-47 assault rifle owned by Saddam Hussein has gone on display for the first time in a new exhibition at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. The weapon was found at Heathrow Airport in 2003 and is likely from a palace in Iraq. The show — Re:Loaded — examines the cultural power of guns and whether deadly weapons can be "disarmed" by transforming them into works of art. (Read more)
Apollo pays tax | The Fitzwilliam Museum has acquired one of the finest Italian Renaissance bronzes ever made: a 500-year-old miniature of the Apollo Belvedere. The work has been donated to the British nation in lieu of a £10.5m inheritance tax bill as part of the the government’s acceptance in lieu scheme, administered by the Arts Council. It’s “an intensely precious object” Director Luke Syson said. (Read more)
News from around the world
Switzerland 🇨🇭 | Zurich’s FIFA Museum has announced it collected 400 objects ‘on the ground’ from this summer’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Six highlights have now gone on display in their World Cup Gallery, including shorts worn by England captain Millie Bright, who led the Lionesses to the their first ever World Cup final. Next year, this gallery will be overhauled to give equal space to the men’s and women’s tournaments. (Read more)
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | The smallest formal portraits made by Rembrandt — only rediscovered this year — have gone on show at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. They were found in a UK private collection and sold at Christie’s for £11.2 million in July. Collector Henry Holterman who bought the portraits has given them on long-term loan to the museum in recognition of their research to attribute the pieces to the Dutch Master. (Read more)
Argentina 🇦🇷 | New far-right president Javier Milei has axed the country’s Ministry of Culture, a day after being inaugurated. Milei, a self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” and former TV pundit, promised to take a “chainsaw” to Argentina’s state as part of radical shock therapy. Milei’s vice president has previously called for the dismantling of the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory in Buenos Aires, a former junta prison and torture centre recently named a Unesco World Heritage Site. (Read more)
USA 🇺🇸 | Oprah Winfrey unveiled her new portrait at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery — and the colour purple fittingly takes centre stage. She told reporters she wore the purple dress for the the sitting because “that color has been seminal in my life.” Winfrey was Oscar nominated for her role in the Color Purple in 1985. The portrait — by artist Shawn Michael Warren — is now on public display. (Read more)
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Best of the rest
Major medieval reopening | The medieval Norwich Castle Keep will officially reopen next summer after a £15m redevelopment. There’ll be a new permanent Gallery of Medieval Life, created with the British Museum. (More)
Major museum closure | South Korea’s Busan Museum of Art is set to close for a two-year renovation project on Sunday, with a reopening set for 2026. The £26m project will “re-narrate the modern and contemporary art history of Asia.” (More)
Manx art showcase | The Isle of Man's National Art Gallery has reopened. 40 works are now on show in a special section of the Manx Museum, all with a connection to the small island in the Irish Sea. (More)
Potter picks Booker | Celebrated artist — and celebrated writer — Edmund de Waal is to chair the judging panel of the Booker Prize 2024. Known for his striking large-scale installations, de Waal penned 2010’s The Hare with Amber Eyes. (More)
Cash starved culture | Fears for the future of Nottingham’s museums have skyrocketed after the bankrupt council announced plans to axe all funding for culture, and to place the museums service under an operational review. (More)
Digital Works Conference | Calling cultural digital professionals! Turbo-charge your talents with this new two-day conference by Substrakt, and learn from global industry museum leaders and experts on how to tackle the digital trends and challenges of 2024 and beyond. (Find out more)*