Cyber attack cripples British Library
Hackers open week-long auction of stolen employee data
Also in this edition: Guggenheim’s new leader, Frieze funds Britain in Venice, German photo biennial axed, Sadiq Khan skips on Sphere, Banksy’s identify revealed
Happy Friday.
I had a trip to see the Frans Hals exhibition at the National Gallery this week. In short, it’s bloody brilliant.
In stark contrast however, is the Christmas market which dominates the north side of Trafalgar Square that the gallery is forced to co-exist with. It’s bloody awful.
Now I’m not against Christmas markets per se (although would anyone lose any sleep if they disappeared tomorrow?) but this one totally consumes the entrance to the gallery, forcing one of the world’s most brilliant — and most visited — art institutions to welcome thousands of visitors in just a few square meters of space. It’s basically an alleyway at the front of the building.
I know Westminster Council will say they are strapped for cash and this helps them raise some dollar. But really, the National Gallery contributes so much more to the local (and national!) ecosystem all-year-round that it really should be treated with more respect. Have a Christmas market all you want, but please, let the gallery breathe!
Before we get into this week’s news, a reminder that earlier this week I sent you part one of a round-up of the best art books of the year, selected by experts. If you missed it, catch up here. Part two will follow next week, alongside a brand new regular opinion column I’m launching, written by guest writers. Lord Ed Vaizey pens the first column, writing on the Parthenon Sculptures. Keep your eyes peeled.
— maxwell
Need To Know
Library’s month-long cyber attack
A group of hackers has claimed responsibility for a cyber attack that has crippled the British Library for the past few weeks. And they’re auctioning off the stolen data — including employee passport scans and financial information — for £600,000 on the dark web.
Ransomeware gang the Rhysida group said they were behind the hack, which began on 28 October and which has brought down the library’s website, online systems and book ordering. As a result, some onsite payments are cash-only, and the public Wi-Fi has been disabled until recently. However, the Library only revealed it was a ransomeware attack this week. Sir Roly Keating, chief executive of the British Library, said that the organisation was still assessing the “impact of this criminal attack” and working to identify a way to “restore our online systems”. (Read more)
Meanwhile, the Financial Times report that security experts are now raising major concerns about the vulnerability of public sector IT infrastructure (the Library is a non-departmental public body) at a time when hacking by state-backed foreign actors is on the rise.
First female to lead Guggenheim group
The Guggenheim have appointed their first ever female leader. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation announced Mariët Westermann as the new director and chief executive of the museum group.
Westermann, currently vice chancellor of N.Y.U. Abu Dhabif, will oversee the Foundation and its flagship institution in New York, as well as its global outposts in Venice, Bilbao, and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Guggenheim Chair J. Tomilson Hill said “She has run a major operation in a foreign country,” and “she’s got great credibility in the art world.”
Westermann’s most pressing task will be getting the much-delayed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi over the line. She told the New York Times it was too soon for her to say anything about the museum, “except that I have been excited to see the building rising so near to me in a truly remarkable district of institutions of art, natural history, science and culture.” She added that she was well aware of the hurdles involved in running “four very distinctive museums in four distinguished buildings in four very dynamic cities.” (Read more)
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News from the UK
Roman reclassified | North Hertfordshire Museum has reclassified a Roman emperor as a transgender woman and will refer to the ruler with she/her pronouns, in a move that made global headlines this week. The museum has one coin of Elagabalus in its collection. A spokesperson said it was "only polite and respectful to be sensitive to identifying pronouns for people in the past." (Read more)
Multi-million museum plan | Ambitious and “critical” £26 million plans to secure the future of the historic Dundee ship HMS Unicorn have been unveiled. The plans involve moving the 200-year-old vessel to a dry dock at a new Dundee Maritime Heritage Centre. Museum Director Matthew Bellhouse Moran told me there’s “a long road ahead” but that these plans are “the considered, sustainable future that Unicorn needs.” (Read more)
Elsewhere in Dundee | Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Dundee will be relived in a new exhibition at the city’s V&A museum. The festival that took place in May will be explored through memorabilia donated by attendees. V&A Dundee Director Leonie Bell told this newsletter that “Crowdsourcing content together with the listeners of the Greg James Breakfast Show and BBC Radio 1 is upbeat and fast-paced.” The show opens on 1 December. (Read more)
Fair finance | In a first for an art fair, Frieze is going to financially support the British Pavilion at next year’s Venice Biennale. Frieze — which is owned by a huge American media giant — will give cash to British-Ghanaian filmmaker John Akomfrah’s commission which is reportedly unusually costly/ambitious (Delete as appropriate). The move reflects the commercial art world’s growing work with non-profits. (Read more)
“It’s Robbie” | Banksy’s real name has been revealed — 20 years ago. A lost BBC interview with the street artist has been unearthed in which he appears to reveal he’s called Robbie Banks. The full interview can be heard on a new bonus episode of Radio 4's The Banksy Story podcast. It includes never-heard-before material from a 2003 interview that includes Banksy's defence of vandalism as art. (Read more)
🔗 Go deeper: Sorry, Banksy. It’s our fault you’ve been unmasked (and here’s how we did it) — The Independent
News from around the world
Germany 🇩🇪 | Next year’s major German photo biennial has been scrapped after one of the curators posted on social media comments around the Gaza conflict that authorities described as antisemitic. The Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie was due to be held in three German cities but has now been cancelled after the three hosts said their “relationship of trust” with the curator “has been severely damaged”. (Read more)
Greece 🇬🇷 | The British Museum is lending the Acropolis Museum in Athens the Meidias Hydria vase, a masterpiece of ancient Greece dating from 420 BC. It’s been in the British Museum’s collection since 1772, and this is the first time in 250 years it’s been loaned. The vase will then go to the Louvre museum for an exhibition coinciding with the Paris Olympic Games. A spokesperson told the Art Newspaper that the loan is part of the ongoing partnership with Greek museums. (Read more)
Italy 🇮🇹 | Speculation grows that the director of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence will stand in the city’s mayoral elections after he hit out at the policies of the current incumbent. Eike Schmidt blasted the current mayor’s decision to deploy security guards at shopping centres, weeks after dismissing Schmidt’s calls for guards at the Uffizi due to an incident of vandalism. Rumours suggest Schmidt will represent the right-wing ruling Brothers of Italy party in the poll. (Read more)
USA 🇺🇸 | 80 artworks have been acquired by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the contemporary art branch of the Smithsonian, over the past year. They include pieces by Nam June Paik, Robert Irwin and Cindy Sherman. Meanwhile 300 works have been acquired by the Brooklyn Museum in the same period, many of which will go on display in their renovated American wing opening next year. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Apply now | Could you be the next Chief Executive of the Horniman museum? Applications to replace Nick Merriman in the £120k-a-year role are now open. You’ll help celebrate 125 years in 2026, but will need to boost self-generated income to £3m. (More)
Badenoch blasts museum | UK Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has written to the Museum of London accusing it of publishing “unreliable” research that could “whip up tensions around history and racism” after it released a report on London’s 14th century plague outbreak. (More)
Award winners | Art bible Apollo magazine have announced their annual awards. Sydney Modern won the gong for museum opening, while Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai won acquisition of the year for the National Portrait Gallery and Getty Museum. (More)
Thanks, no thanks | London mayor Sadiq Khan has made the (sensible) decision to block the proposed £1.5 billion British version of the Las Vegas Sphere. The company behind it have now scrapped its plans — and are not at all bitter about it, nope. (More)
Mapping history | Over 130 antique world maps, celestial maps, and atlases — dating from c.1200 to the 1800s — have been made accessible to the public for the first time. The exceptional private Sunderland collection can be explored on the new platform Oculi Mundi. (More)
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