V&A vs the Met for £2m treasure
London museum fights to keep object it's displayed for 40 years
Also in this edition: Portrait Gallery Director honoured by King, servant exhibition coming to Kensington Palace, Greek government willing to loan, Horniman’s walrus off display for two years.
Happy Friday — and happy new year! I very much hope you enjoyed your festive breaks and NYE bashes.
Any New Year’s resolutions this year?
Perhaps it’s to see more exhibitions in 2024? Or — if you’re like me — it’s to stop forgetting to go and see shows and then having to manically cram in a visit on the (massively busy) final week because you forget that, you know, things close.
Unfortunately though you may have to wait to enact that resolution as there are a ton of exhibitions closing in January that I expect many of you — again like me — will not have been able to see as many of as you wanted yet.
If you didn’t see Marina Abramović, then unfortunately you’ve missed out on that one — it closed on New Year’s Day. And if you want to see Idris Khan and Annie Morris at Pitzhanger or Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Hayward Gallery then you need to be very quick as they shut this Sunday.
There’s a little more time for some other big hitters: Claudette Johnson at the Courtauld, Sarah Lucas at Tate Britain, Frans Hals at the National Gallery, Antony Gormley at White Cube Bermondsey, Contemporary African Photography at Tate Modern, and Rubens and Women at Dulwich Picture Gallery. But they all close for good in the next three weeks, so there’s really not that much time at all.
So get booking is my advice — and become an exhibition early bird from 1 February.
Now onto the first news round-up of the year!
— maxwell
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Need To Know
Total funding cut proposed
Suffolk County Council will axe all its funding to arts and museums in the county under new budget proposals.
According to the Council, they currently give public funding to three independent museums: the Long Shop Museum in Leiston, the Food Museum in Stowmarket and Gainsborough's House in Sudbury, which only reopened after a £7m redevelopment in 2022.
The budget move would save £500,000 a year and is part of a much wider plan of cuts to try to save £64.7m.
The Long Shop Museum faces losing 10% of its annual income under these proposals. Director Fraser Hale told the Art Newspaper that this cash primarily covers insurance and school visits. “We’ll need to find that money, or equivalent savings, elsewhere after this year” he said.
Suffolk’s plans come as a consultation on Nottingham City Council’s hope to cut its entire cultural budget runs until 16 January. (Read more)
Museum tug of war
The V&A is thought to be fighting to keep in the UK a magnificent 12th-century walrus ivory it’s had on display for 40 years. It faces an uphill battle against the Metropolitan Museum of Art who quietly bought the item last year.
The object in question is Deposition from the Cross which was sold in a private sale by Sotheby’s to the Met for just over £2m a few months ago. But — as first reported in the Art Newspaper — the piece has now had an export bar placed on it by the UK government to try to allow a British institution to buy it.
Remarkably, the government’s reviewing committee on the export of works of art, called the piece “one of the most culturally and aesthetically significant objects” they have considered in years.
It’s now thought the V&A — where the ivory has been displayed on long-term loan since 1982 — is the only likely contender to be able to at least attempt to match the Met’s sale price and to keep it in Britain. A V&A spokesperson was unable to comment to the Art Newspaper on whether the museum would try to acquire the Deposition but stressed that they “recognise the unique historical and artistic significance of this rare piece.” (Read more)
King honours culture figures
Outgoing Horniman Museum chief Nick Merriman and National Portrait Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan were among the top cultural figures recognised in the 2024 King’s New Year Honours list. Both became OBEs.
Merriman — soon to head up English Heritage — was honoured for his "outstanding contribution" to both institutions, while Cullinan's award acknowledged his "visionary leadership" during the three-year redevelopment of the gallery, which is on track for record-breaking visitor figures after reopening in June.
Other honours included CBEs awarded to National Trust chair René Olivieri, MBEs for Nathaniel Hepburn (Charleston Trust), Joseph Galliano-Doig (for Queer Britain, the UK's first LGBTQ+ museum), and Nicolas Hill (Historic England). There was a damehood for Roald Dahl Museum founder Felicity Dahl, wife of the late author. Other OBE recipients include Elaine Bedell, the chief executive of the Southbank Centre.
Artist Sonia Boyce, who represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale last year, also received a damehood. (Read more)
News from the UK
Below stairs exhibition | The servants and courtiers who ran Britain’s royal palaces for centuries will be given the exhibition treatment this spring. Kensington Palace — home of the Prince and Princess of Wales — will shine a spotlight on the lives of these often overlooked workers through paintings and objects, some on display for the first time in the UK. Co-curator Sebastian Edwards says “in recognising the contribution they made, we hope that all our visitors find new connections with the palace.” (Read more)
Hello (wooly) Dolly! | A fleece sheared from Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, has been donated to Scotland’s national collection. The donation was made by Dr William A Ritchie, an embryologist on the team that created Dolly in 1996. It joins Dolly’s preserved body which has been on display the National Museum of Scotland for 20 years. Sophie Goggins, senior curator, said the “fleece will now be available to researchers, ensuring Dolly's remarkable contribution to science continues for generations to come." (Read more)
Another fight for survival | 3,500 people have so far signed a petition against Middlesbrough Council’s proposal to shut the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, as part of efforts to save millions of pounds and avoid bankruptcy. The council believes closing it would save £345,000 over two years, as part of a wider plan to save £14 million. Martin Peagram, chairman of the Captain Cook Birthplace Trust told BBC Tees the museum "has got to survive in some way." (Read more)
Summer staycation? | British tourism association ABTA predicts tourism booms in 2024 for Aruba, Vietnam and er, Shropshire. Yes, the (still) rural birthplace of the industrial revolution is recommended as a ‘destination to watch,’ the first time a UK location has made the annual list, reflecting Britons’ increased interest in domestic holidays. The county’s Ironbridge museums and UNESCO World Heritage Site are recommended visits. (Read more)
News from around the world
USA 🇺🇸 | The Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York were amongst several prominent American museums that saw their activities disrupted when a cyberattack hit a prominent technological service provider. Hackers targeted software that many museums use to show their collections online and to manage sensitive information. It’s thought disruption continued for several days. (Read more)
Greece 🇬🇷 | For the very first time, the Greek government has confirmed it is prepared to loan some of its greatest treasures to the British Museum in exchange for the surviving Parthenon marbles currently in London. The country’s culture minister told the Guardian that “Should the sculptures be reunited in Athens, Greece is prepared to organise rotating exhibitions of important antiquities that would fill the void.” But discussions had not extended to “specific artefacts” she stressed. (Read more)
Poland 🇵🇱 | Poland’s new centre government is rapidly sweeping aside many of the cultural policies of the previous nationalist administration, including axing the country’s Venice Biennale pavilion submission and replacing it with an interactive show by a Ukrainian art collective. It follows the new culture minister’s Christmas sacking of the director of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art that oversees the Venice nomination, as well as the government’s liquidation of Poland’s public TV and Radio stations. (Read more)
USA 🇺🇸 | After 14 years running the Frick Collection in NYC, director Ian Wardropper, has announced he will retire next year — just months after seeing the completion of a long and controversial expansion of the museum. The $290 million ‘new’ Frick will open later in 2024. It was Wardropper’s third attempt to get approval for the project, after two plans were abandoned due to opposition. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Catch while you can | The Horniman Museum’s iconic overstuffed-walrus will be taken of display in March — for two years. It’s because the museum’s Natural History Gallery will be shut for a major overhaul. (More)
Looking ahead…to 2025! | Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti has been appointed director of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2025. In a statement he hinted it will focus on the impact technology has on architecture and urbanism.(More)
No visits this year | Ever visited Upminster’s “ramshackle” Museum of Nostalgia? Unfortunately you won’t be able to now until Spring 2025 as it needs urgent repairs. Thankfully the closure is due to a new £650,000 government grant to help work to be carried out. (More)
Posting Girl Power! | Iconic photographs of the Spice Girls are to appear on British stamps, in a new set issued by the Royal Mail to commemorate the group’s 30th anniversary. It’s the first time an entire stamp issue has been dedicated to a female pop group. (More)
YBA real estate | Got a spare £1.5 million? You could own a piece of art history real-estate as the Shoreditch property where Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas opened a riotous shop in 1993 is on the market. (More)
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