"Deal to be done" over Parthenon Sculptures says Osborne
Plus: Turner Prize returns to London after six years
Hello
I hope my UK readers are enjoying/surviving the heat. Summer has truly arrived, and I am here for it.
This week Tate announced that the 2023 Turner Prize will be hosted in Eastbourne, in the Towner gallery, as part of their centenary celebrations. So far so good I thought. But then I was puzzled. Isn’t it supposed to be held in London every other year? And isn’t it in Liverpool this year? And Coventry last? I did some googling, and realised that it hadn’t actually been held in the capital since 2018. I tweeted this, and Tate got back to me to say that it would indeed be back at Tate Britain in 2024. My first thought was: great, I’ve got a scoop (ok, I realise it’s not exactly Watergate). But my second was, what has not having it in London for six years done to the standing of the prize? I mean it’s certainly coincided with a diminishing of its prestige, although that can also be put down to dodgy moves such as joint winners and collective-only shortlists. London is a world capital of art, and a very vast slice of the British art scene is in the city. There is obviously huge value in taking it out to other places in the UK, but I can’t help feeling hosting it in the capital is actually very long overdue. I mean, when was the last time you saw - or were even that bothered - by the Turner Prize? One to ponder.
Take care of yourselves, and each other.
Maxwell
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This week’s news
Are you - or maybe, were you - a gamer? If yes, then you’ve probably played a computer game based around war. Think Medal of Honour or Call of Duty. Well the Imperial War Museum London thinks this shoot-em-up art form deserves examining in a big new exhibition that they’ve just announced. Games will be displayed alongside objects such as sniper rifles and facial prosthetics worn by World War One veterans disfigured by their injuries. (Plus it’ll show Worms, which we can all agree was THE highpoint of the 90s.) Evening Standard
The most eye-catching news this week are comments made by former Chancellor, and now British Museum Chair, George Osborne about the Parthenon Sculptures. He told LBC radio that there is a “deal to be done” with Greece over the contested pieces. He added that an arrangement where some of those in London “be moved to Greece at least for a while and then they would come back” might be a “suitable” arrangement. The British Museum gave one of the fullest quotes on the subject for a while, saying that “too often discussions are limited to legalistic and adversarial context instead of focusing on how to share the sculptures with a wider world.” But while this all sounds like moving towards an historic loan, the reality is the Museum has always been willing to do this. It’s just never been asked. The Art Newspaper
Are hairdressers the farmers of the future, who could reuse hair in the way that we reuse sheared wool from sheep? This is just one of the questions - and big ideas - posed in a new display opening next week at the Design Museum. It shows new ways of thinking about the climate crisis, from the minds of four Design Researchers in Residence. Evening Standard
There are just 41 days until the 2022 Commonwealth Games (can’t wait!) and to celebrate the coming sporting extravaganza, artist Hew Locke has given the city’s well-known Queen Victoria statue a makeover. She’s now joined by mini versions inside a large wooden boat as they set sail. I rather like it. Birmingham Live
In other public sculpture news, Ai Weiwei has unveiled one in Stockholm. It’s not new - it was first shown in 2017 in New York - but the artist says the huge cage-like structure takes on extra resonance in the wake of the war in Ukraine. I would LOVE to go and see it. The Art Newspaper
Whole civilisations have come and gone quicker than it’s taking to build the UK’s HS2 high speed rail line, but at least it’s resulting in some remarkable archaeological finds. An Anglo-Saxon burial ground with 138 graves is the latest to be unearthed, and is one of the largest ever uncovered in the UK experts have said. BBC News
I’m not sure I can keep up with the story around Kim Kardashian and the Monroe dress at the Met Gala. This week photos were posted of the dress back on display in the US, with an expert claiming there was visible buckling, ripping and the loss of crystals. But the dress’ owners, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, have hit back saying that it was “confident” Kardashian did not cause any damage to the garment. They even went as far as to say that the saga has meant “an entirely new group of young people has now been introduced to the legacy” of Marilyn Monroe. That’s Marilyn Monroe, the world’s most famous, iconic and popular movie actress in history. Phew, we’d all be like Marilyn who? if it wasn’t for Kim K. The Guardian
And finally
Sir John Soane’s Museum has uncovered a mini time capsule, hidden in an architectural column.
Read this brilliant piece in the Guardian on the National Gallery’s latest UK loan, a Rembrandt which can be seen in a tiny gallery in mid-Wales. It’s fascinating, slightly moving, and just simply an excellent slice of arts PR.
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