BP back at BM?
British Museum says "no decisions" made about future of partnership with oil giant
*In partnership with ATS
Also in this edition: Tate’s joint acquisition, remarkable Tudor discovery, arson attack at museum, Brits to design Bayeux museum, Joan Rivers jokes on display.
Happy Friday.
So, were you successful in getting Chanel tickets at the V&A? If you wanted them then presumably you were as there is currently plenty of availability (two days after after the ticket drop.) Of the days that went on sale, only five have sold out at time of writing. This is perhaps surprising as buyers were advised the online queue was an hour long, and Twitter showed many complaints of 5-6 hour waits and a glitchy website. The V&A then suspended all new buyers from around late afternoon, indicating that demand was high. I expected such a big show to have clocked up a few more sales, especially as the first 14 days of the run — which went on sale earlier in the year — were snapped up in hours. It’s curious, but I doubt the V&A are worried. The show will certainly still be massive (so book now if you want to go!)
It was a busy week for Chanel actually, who launched a major new high jewellery collection at a huge dinner attended by Kylie Minogue and Keira Knightley. Only a stunning world-famous museum was going to be suitable location for such a glitzy party. Thankfully the fashion house knew just who to call….the British Museum.
A big happy birthday tomorrow to the Museum of London Docklands which turns 20. It was opened in a converted Georgian sugar warehouse in East London in 2003 by HM Queen Elizabeth II. To celebrate this milestone they’re having a knees-up by hosting a street party and opening after-hours. Here’s to another 20 I say!
Finally, I must say another thank you to everyone who donated to this newsletter after last week’s edition. A second wave of outstanding generosity really took my breath away. It inspires me to keep writing.
So on that note, read on!
Maxwell
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Need To Know
Joint ownership
Tate and the Museum of the Home have announced a rare(ish) joint acquisition of a landmark painting. A Young Teacher (1861) by Rebecca Solomon is now part of the national collection and will be displayed in Tate Britain’s new Pre-Raphaelite gallery from the end of June, before a move to the Museum of the Home in East London in autumn 2024.
Tate said in a statement Solomon’s work is a “reflection on gender, race, religion and education in mid-nineteenth century London.” Jenny Waldman, Director of Art Fund who provided funds to help the acquisition said “Solomon was a remarkable pre-Raphaelite painter overlooked in the art historical canon for being female and Jewish.”
The painting had been sold to an overseas buyer, and so the British government placed an export bar to prevent it being taken out of the UK, and to give an institution time to purchase it for the valuation price of almost £315,000. Interestingly, the sale had come from an auction at Sotheby’s in March 2022, where its estimate was only £20-30,000 but the hammer went down on over ten times that. Even more interestingly, two public national institutions tried to buy the work at that auction. The same ones presumably? And very, very interestingly, in applying the take the work overseas, the applicant raised their disappointment in the lack of ethnic diversity within the reviewing committee for this particular case.
Tudor Treasure
Thomas Cromwell’s Book of Hours features in one of the most famous portraits from Tudor England and was thought long lost to history. In incredible news however, it transpires it’s been hiding in plain sight for 363 years.
Researchers from Hever Castle in Kent have revealed that a Cambridge library has unwittingly held the personal prayer book of Henry VIII’s powerful adviser since 1660. It’s “the most exciting Cromwell discovery in a generation — if not more,” said historian Tracy Borman.
The 1527 Book of Hours can be seen in Hans Holbein the Younger’s famous portrait of Thomas Cromwell, which was painted in 1532-33 and is in the Frick Collection, New York. The book is now on display until November at the castle in an exhibition looking at the lives of two other prominent figures from the Tudor court, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Off with your head if you don’t go and visit I say. (Read more)
Game-changing tech
*In partnership with ATS
Have you or your museum been thinking about digitising your collection? It can definitely feel daunting, especially for smaller organisations.
Digitising your museum’s remarkable objects has three main benefits:
It provides a detailed record to support your preservation and conservation missions
It allows better access for research
It produces richer ways your visitors can interact with works both on-site or online
To be fair, you may already know this.
But what you may not know, is that the latest technology now allows digitisation to include full 3D digital facsimiles. These can be created through object scanning which takes just 30 minutes, when previously it took days.
So this means digital 3D reproductions of extraordinary detail are now accessible to smaller organisations with smaller budgets. It's a game-changer.
If you’re ready to make the leap to open up your collection through digitisation, this upcoming FREE webinar will tell you how ATS will help you do it. (Register)
News from the UK
Biennial’s back | The 12th Liverpool Biennial has kicked off. It’s the largest contemporary arts festival in Britain, taking place every two years across museums, galleries and public spaces in the city. This edition features the work of 35 artists from six continents and 25 countries, with 15 of them creating original work. Many pieces explore Liverpool’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. (Read more)
BM + BP? | Questions remain over whether the British Museum really has ended its sponsorship deal with BP. Last week this newsletter carried the Guardian story that the controversial relationship had ended after 27 years. But a spokesperson has told the Museums Journal that “We have not ended our partnership with BP” and that “no decisions about the future of the partnership have been taken”. Climate activist group Culture Unstained suggests the museum “appears to be stage managing its exit.” (Read more)
Museum arson | A barn at the open-air Avoncroft Museum in Bromsgrove has been torched by vandals. The barn was used for education activities and police are now looking for those responsible for the arson attack. They are particularly keen to speak to three hooded e-scooter riders who were spotted in the area. (Read more)
Community Spirit | More than 300 volunteers queued up to help restore a vandalised art sculpture of a Black woman. The work — titled Seated and by New York-based artist Tschabalala Self — was spray-painted white shortly after being installed at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea. A spokesperson for the gallery said “We’re adamant we’re not going to give in to these violent acts.” (Read more)
News from around the world
USA | The Metropolitan Museum of Art will return $550,000 worth of donations to FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that made huge headlines when it went bankrupt in November. The defunct company owes around $8 billion to close to a million people. In addition to his gifts to the museum, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried made millions of dollars worth of donations to politicians. (Read more)
France | The Bayeux Tapestry Museum in northern France is to get a revamp — and ironically a British firm has won the battle to carry out the work. The late Richard Rogers’ architectural practice RSHP will design the new museum, and said it was a “privilege and a responsibility.” Bayeux’s head of museums, tourism and heritage Loïc Jamin said the decision came as a “surprise,” adding: “The choice of a British architect is quite a symbol.” (Read more)
USA | A new museum devoted to the story of Jewish life in Washington D.C. opens today. The four-story Capital Jewish Museum near Judiciary Square surrounds a sacred site: the oldest surviving synagogue in the District, built in 1876. The galleries include one dedicated to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg which displays her collar worn in court and other items. (Read more)
USA | 65,000 typewritten gags by Joan Rivers are to go on permanent public display in New York. Her daughter Melissa Rivers has donated them all to the National Comedy Centre in Jamestown, which is planning an interactive exhibition that will include Rivers’s catalogue of one-liners. The jokes are all categorised under trademark Rivers themes including “Parents hated me” and “No sex appeal.” (Read more)
Best of the rest
🔗 The National Portrait Gallery have unveiled their new sustainable uniforms. Designed by Wayne Hemingway, all items are intended to be gender-neutral and are made from fabric offcuts.
🔗 The new director of the Whitworth in Manchester has said she wants to develop the "artistic rigour” of the gallery, and widen its global appeal. Sook-Kyung Lee is currently senior curator of international art at Tate Modern.
🔗 Françoise Gilot, an accomplished painter who became a social celebrity for her romantic relationship with Pablo Picasso and its fraught aftermath, has died age 101.
🔗 An update on the biggest museum story in the land — Mel Giedroyc's butter churn from Eurovision 2023. The Museum of Liverpool, who recently acquired it, have decided to put it on display. Public demand probably.
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