BBC discovers lost art masterpiece
PLUS: Pitt Rivers retaining Maasai objects
— In partnership with Art UK's Visual Literacy Week
This edition also features: Just Stop Oil activists acquitted | Natural History Museum treads the boards | Norway’s new art museum
Happy Friday.
I blinked, and September disappeared.
Which means I totally forgot to mark the one year anniversary of the Observer newspaper naming this very newsletter one of the 33 best in the world. Yes, that wasn’t a dream I had. A lot of you reading this are here because of that piece. My only excuse for forgetting to mark it was that I was busy planning future newsletters. You’re only as good as your last edition!
Even more significantly, last month I also forgot to celebrate the SIXTH anniversary since the newsletter’s inception!
On the 25 September 2018 I first hit send on maxwell museums and it landed in the inbox of 42 people. Six years on there are now 4,400 of you.
In the past 12 months I’ve sent you 62 editions, covering the biggest stories — from the resignation of the British Museum’s Deputy Director for the thefts scandal, to the Pokemon chaos at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum.
I’ve interviewed Directors of new museums, I dedicated a whole edition to the National Gallery’s bicentenary, I asked what actually does a museum PR do?, and I even found out which exhibition the Dutch Ambassador to the UK was most excited for in 2024.
I also created my brand new opinion column the 250 Take, which launched with Lord Ed Vaizey arguing the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Athens. The column has gone on to explore whether museums should ban mobile phones, and why museums are bad at social media (which is the most read edition ever FYI).
It’s been quite the year. Made even more crazy perhaps by my thoughts on the new Museum of London’s pooing pigeon logo being reported on by BBC News and many more.
I want to thank each and every one of you for reading this newsletter, week-in-week-out. It’s why I keep writing it.
I want to extended an extra special thanks to the 40 readers who have donated money to this project over the last 12 months. A conservative estimate is that each edition takes me around 6 hours to put together which means I’ve done the equivalent of just shy of 50 working days on this newsletter since last September. So every penny really does make a difference in ensuring not every hour of work is unrewarded.
Over the next 12 months I want to keep going and growing. So if you’ve enjoyed reading these emails — or have found them valuable to your job — then now is a really great time to make a donation so that by next September I can be brining you even more. And if you can, setting up a monthly donation is even more helpful to me. You can do it all in just a few clicks here.
THANK YOU! Here’s to year seven!
— maxwell
— In partnership with Art UK's Visual Literacy Week
Art's role in driving visual literacy
Every primary-school aged child in Britain should to be taught the critical skill of visual literacy.
That's the verdict of art education charity Art UK, who have announced an ambition to make it a reality in the next five years.
By 2030, they aim to be helping ALL children learn the vital skills to decode the meaning of images.
Art UK Chief Executive Andy Ellis says they believe “that art can be a pathway to becoming visually literate in our digital age" and that these skills will "create confident, capable and empathetic young people."
It's why they launched Visual Literacy Week this week too, which has sparked a national debate on visual literacy and is supported by artists including Bob & Roberta Smith and Rana Begum. It's delivered articles and webinars, and there's a symposium tomorrow to encourage discussion around why visual literacy is so important.
You can discover more on what visual literacy means here — and you can discover Art UK's extensive resources on the subject too.
Need To Know
Pitt Rivers retain Maasai objects
188 Maasai objects from Kenya and Tanzania will remain as part of the collection of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum after a week-long visit and extensive deliberations with Maasai community leaders.
Ten delegates visited the museum as part of a project aimed at improving relations with indigenous peoples whose material features in the collection. The museum said the conclusion of the discussions resulted in the delegates deciding “it would be appropriate, given that the objects are being well cared for, that they would best be kept in the care of the Museum.”
Having reached this decision, more cultural provenance information was shared. The stories behind each object will also be documented and made available. The museum said there would now be “future collaborations” so that Maasai cultural traditions can be best represented in the permanent galleries, and so as many visitors as possible will learn from this process.
Ruth Sintamei Tuleto, from the Pan African Living Cultures Alliance, said "the Maasai and the museum would like to co-exist for other communities to emulate what we have done — we are talking about peace and reconciliation." (Read more)
Activists deny Van Gogh targeting
Three Just Stop Oil supporters have denied carrying out an attack after two Van Gogh Sunflower paintings were targeted in a protest at the National Gallery last Friday.
At Westminister Magistrates’ Court, Stephen Simpson, 71, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, Mary Somerville, 77, also of Bradford, and Phillipa Green, 24, of Penryn, Cornwall, pleaded not guilty to criminal damage. The prosecution said one of the antique frames owned by the Gallery would “likely require lengthy restoration”. They were bailed by the court, on the condition they do not enter the Greater London area. (Read more)
Elsewhere, a judge acquitted two activists who glued themselves to a J.M.W. Turner painting at Manchester Art Gallery in July 2022 as part of a similar protest. Of this case, Just Stop Oil said that the “judge found that the action was proportionate in view of the climate crisis.” They added they were “grateful for the few within the legal system who understand that Just Stop Oil supporters are acting in self-defence and seeking to defend life on earth.” (Read more)
No fake, all fortune
A painting bought at auction for just over £2,000 has been uncovered as a masterpiece thought lost for 110 years. It’s now been revalued as worth £300,000.
After extensive research, the painting has been revealed to be by impressionist Helen McNicoll, described as “one of the most notable female artists in Canada.” Its story was only unearthed after its owner took it out of the frame and saw McNicoll’s signature, before contacting the BBC’s Fake or Fortune programme.
On the show — broadcast last night — presenter Fiona Bruce revealed there was enough evidence to support the conclusion that the painting was a lost work by McNicoll called The Bean Harvest. It had been lost ever since its 1915 display at the Royal Academy in London.
Co-presenter and art expert Philip Mould said “this is a once in a lifetime discovery.” It will now be sold at auction in the near future. Honestly, this show just keeps on giving, it’s a must watch! (Read more)
News from the UK
Sculpture solution 🇬🇷 | British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “wants a solution” to the Parthenon Sculptures dispute according to Thangam Debbonaire, who was shadow culture secretary until she lost her seat at the last election. “I think we all know it was theft” she told a Greek newspaper when referring to how the sculptures arrived in the UK. “If you stand in front of any of them in the British Museum, you are struck by what’s missing.” She said the Prime Minister wants "a solution because Greece and the UK are allies. (Read more)
Sponsored swim 🏊 | Garden Museum Director Christopher Woodward will from Monday swim 100km around Greek islands to raise £250,000 for the museum’s project to create a new public park. Planning permission was granted this week to turn some road surface near Lambeth Bridge into the park. It’ll be Woodward’s sixth sponsored swim for the museum, and will take him several days. It’s the equivalent of swimming the English Channel three times. (Read more)
T-Rex tour 🦖 | Get ready, the Dinosaurs are coming for you. The Natural History Museum has announced its created its first ever theatrical production and it’s set to tour 60 venues across the UK next year. Called Dinosaurs Live! it’ll be a family-friendly production which will explore the planet’s evolutionary history, and will include animatronic creatures on stage. FWIW, I think this is a brilliant move for the financial windfall it will bring. More please! (Read more)
“Social vandalism” | Last week this newsletter reported on the proposal to close Edinburgh’s People’s History Museum to plug a local council budget deficit. This week, councillors REJECTED the plans. But it was revealed the museum had already shut due to a freeze on hiring new staff, and that alternative options won’t be discussed until December. Speaking for the Save the People’s Story campaign, Jim Slaven accused the council of “mismanaging” the attraction “for years” and said “it needs love and investment”. (Read more)
News from around the world
USA 🇺🇸 | Mayor of New York Eric Adams has been charged with taking bribes and foreign campaign contributions this week. But new documents also allege that in 2016 his aides pressured the Brooklyn Museum to host a Chinese history exhibition — and to make it happen in just a month. At the time, Adams was borough president of Brooklyn. On a second attempt to get the project going, the museum’s Director wrote back that the galleries were occupied and that “no museum can not [sic] turn around an exhibition in one month. It normally takes at least 2-3 years.” (Read more)
France 🇫🇷 | A 31-year-old treasure hunt — said to the be the world’s longest — has finally come to an end after a buried statuette of an owl has finally been unearthed. The hunt — which has captivated a cult following — was based on deciphering 11 complicated puzzles that appeared in a book in 1993. The clues were said to reveal the location of a bronze replica of the owl, with the finder promised to be rewarded with the £126,000 gold original. It “was dug up last night” an official statement said. (Read more)
USA 🇺🇸 | 165 world famous artists have come out in support of Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House by donating artworks to help her raise money for her campaign. One of the most eye-catching is a brand new work by Jeff Koons called American Flagpole (Gazing Balls). Sheila Hicks has contributed a new assemblage of linen threads. Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker and George Condo have also taken part. A Harris for President spokesperson said they were “grateful to the art community” for supporting “Vice President Harris’s campaign to turn the page on hate and division.” (Read more)
Norway 🇳🇴 | Surprise! Europe is getting a brand new major art museum. Hush hush until this week, the city of Trondheim will see its 110-year-old Art Nouveau Post Office building transformed into a 43,000 square feet landmark gallery over five floors. Called PoMo, its collection is formed from works from the collection of Norwegian conglomerate REITAN. But they will dedicate 60% of its acquisitions budget to women artists to “tackle gender inequality in museum collections at large.” It opens in February. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Garden path | The British Museum’s Silk Roads exhibition has opened to rave reviews, but historian William Dalrymple says it’s misleading visitors. “It’s perverse to the point of peddling an untruth” he said of the show. (More)
Sale opposition | Artists Jeremy Deller and Wolfgang Tillmans have joined Mary Beard, Hugh Grant, Miriam Margolyes and 70 other leading names to denounce what they say is a “disastrous” plan for the Observer newspaper to be sold off. (More)
Green light | The £58 million redevelopment of Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum and Maritime Museum is to go ahead after planning permission was approved. Both museums will close in early 2025 for three years. (More)
Tube treasures | Preservation group Save Britain’s Heritage wants the 11 Tube stations on the 1999 Jubilee Line extension to get listed status. The stations — including Westminster and Canary Wharf — are “thrilling examples” of transport infrastructure they say. (More)
No closure | The former home of Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway has axed its winter closure after visitor feedback, and will now also open throughout the year. New jobs have been created in order to extend the opening hours. (More)
Visual Literacy* | Art UK has announced a mission to help ALL children learn the vital skills to decode the meaning of images by 2030. Through art, it'll help "create confident, capable and empathetic young people." (More)
*This is sponsored content
👀 Last week’s most clicked news story | The Courtauld’s blockbuster Monet show opened as the gallery’s biggest exhibition pre-sale in history. To meet demand they added late night openings.
📊 Last week’s poll results | Should the Turner Prize be retired?
🥱 Yes — it's a yawn 74%
🥰 No — still showing art's best 26%
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