Another 2,000 missing objects
FOI reveals Museum Wales' missing items
Also in this edition: Frieze fair returns, Vagina Museum’s new home, Turbine Hall commission revealed, uproar over Cezanne sale.
Happy Friday.
I am very late to the party by saying this: but isn’t the BBC’s Fake or Fortune? absolutely brilliant? And yes, it has taken me twelve years to realise it.
I’m not much of a TV watcher, but series 11 of this art detective show — currently showing on BBC One in the UK — has become pretty much the only programme I’ll sit down to watch, like it’s 1999. The new Big Brother could never.
The art they feature in each episode is great (except the fakes obvs) but the real stars are presenters Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould. Give them an Oscar! The chats, the repeating things back to each other, the jet setting across Europe just to get someone to look at an iPad. The only thing missing is running. I think they should run more, Batman-style.
And I really love the jeopardy. It’s cranked higher and higher as the hour goes on, all in the expectation that the work’s owner will have their life ruined if it doesn’t turn out to be authentic and they lose a load of cash they never had anyway and lived perfectly happily for decades never knowing about.
It is TV at its best. So catch up on iPlayer if you haven’t seen it. And join me again in another 12 years where I’ll be giving you further gems like “so there’s this popstar called Taylor Swift don’t you know” and “have you heard about this app called the TikTok?”
Maxwell
— Enjoy this newsletter every Friday? Then please donate £5 as a thank you.
Need To Know
Museum Wales missing objects
A freedom of information request (FOI) has revealed that almost 2,000 objects from the collection of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales are listed as missing.
Museum Wales consists of seven institutions including National Museum Cardiff and St Fagans National Museum of History. The BBC FOI request revealed that 1,153—more than half of the total of missing items — were from St Fagans, the 2019 Art Fund Museum of the Year winner. Many of the objects are domestic items, such as spoons, salt cellars and bowls. None are thought to have financial value.
In a statement, Museum Wales said that “some losses are inevitable” when dealing with a collection of over five million objects and welcoming 1.3 million annual visitors.
This story, and other recent FOI news on missing objects from organisations such as the Imperial War Museum, has led the Museums Association Director to slam the media for their reporting, calling it “damaging” and echoing the point that missing items were “unsurprising.” [Not sure every taxpayer would agree tbh]. (Read more)
Frieze at 20
It’s the London art scene’s version of the Olympics [or maybe the Hunger Games?] and it’s back. The Frieze art fair has returned to the Capital for it’s 20th anniversary edition. The world’s galleries have descended on the city to all compete for the big names — and the big bucks.
Celebrities including Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield, Stormzy, and Rami Malek were among the VIPs given early access to the fairs in Regent’s Park. And early sales were fairly strong, especially for White Cube who sold a Tracey Emin painting for £1.2 million, an Antony Gormley sculpture for £525,000 and a work by Gilbert & George for £130,000. El Anatsui (who opened his Turbine Hall commission this week — more below) sold a new work for £1.57 million. Louise Bourgeois’s Knife Couple sold for £2.47 million.
Some of the sold art will be going to public collections too FYI. Four UK artists were acquired by the Arts Council Collection thanks to its inaugural Acquisitions Fund. Six works were acquired via the Frieze Tate Fund which gives curators £150,000 to purchase works for Tate’s collection. And the Contemporary Art Society’s Collection Fund purchased works by three women artists too. (Read more)
🔗 MORE: London salutes 20 years of big Frieze
News from the UK
Tate’s ‘Mesmerising’ commission | Tate Modern has unveiled the 2023 Hyundai Commission in the Turbine Hall. This year’s work is a huge sculptural installation by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui, and it’s been opened to rave reviews. “A mesmerising work of art” was the Telegraph’s verdict. Meanwhile, the gallery also opened the third artist takeover of the Tate Edit shop. Guerrilla Girls have taken on creating this year’s experimental shopping experience. (Read more)
Vagina Museum moves | 2,500 people have donated to a fundraising campaign to help the Vagina Museum find a new home. After exceeding the £85,000 target, the museum will now open at a bigger location in East London next month, and will begin with a new temporary exhibition on endometriosis. The museum was forced to leave its Camden Market building in 2021. (Read more)
First of many | Electric blankets have been used to carry out conservation work on a 3,000-year-old logboat which this week was the first object to arrive at the new Perth Museum. The blankets helped warm the ancient bark so it could be reshaped. The year-long conservation work allows it to be displayed as a highlight of the new multi-million pound museum opening next spring. (Read more)
Heist artwork found | A painting stolen during a museum heist in Glasgow more than 30 years ago has been recovered. It is the only item from the 1989 robbery of the Haggs Castle Museum of Childhood to have been found. It was discovered after being listed on the Art Loss Register and ahead of its sale at auction. It’s now been returned to Glasgow Museums. (Read more)
News from around the world
Switzerland | The Museum Langmatt in Baden has caused uproar after announcing it plans to sell three star items from its collection. Paintings by Cézanne will be sold at Christie's New York as the museum hopes to raise over £36 million to create an endowment fund to keep operating. But the Swiss branch of the International Council of Museums called the sale “outrageous.” Others have threatened to take the museum to court. (Read more)
USA | A man has pleaded guilty to stealing the famous ruby slippers from the The Wizard of Oz when they were on display in the Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota. The items were snatched in 2005, but recovered by the FBI in 2018. The man was arrested only this year, and today admitted one count of theft of a major artwork. (Read more)
France | The Louvre is hoping to bolster its contemporary art credentials by offering artists Kader Attia and Elizabeth Peyton their own studios inside the museum. The new residency program is part of an expansive new modern art offering, which will also see exclusive guided tours led by artists such as Sheila Hicks and Lee Ufan, and a new book called The Louvre Conversations where Hans-Ulrich Obrist — artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London — speaks to artists. (Read more)
USA | One of the billionaire heirs to the retail-giant Walmart fortune is donating $40 million in grants to 64 museums across America. The grants, ranging from $56,000 to more than $2 million for a three-year period, are intended to fund programs to attract new audiences. Among those receiving grants are the the San Diego Museum of Art and the Delaware Art Museum. (Read more)
— Enjoy this newsletter? Then please donate £5 as a thank you.
Best of the rest
Long before wellness | Archaeological excavations below the National Trust-maintained Bath Assembly Rooms have revealed an almost entirely preserved 18th century cold bath, thought to be the only one of its kind. (More)
Arrests in Australia | Three men have been charged after they allegedly performed a Nazi salute outside Sydney’s Jewish Museum earlier today. Police surrounded the museum and local streets to arrest the men. (More)
Audit asks for answers | Questions are being asked as to whether the National Museum of Wales broke the law after paying its former boss £50,000 because he had “injured feelings”. He also received two other five-figure payments. (More)
Oscars museum delays | Tomorrow’s Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’s annual glitzy fundraising gala has been postponed due to the Israel-Hamas war. It was due to honour Meryl Streep. (More)
Mummies in museums | Is it ethical to display Egyptian mummies? We the Museum — the podcast for museum workers — explores this question in their latest episode. Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.*