Fears for Ukraine's museums
Plus: Whitworth director ousted
Hello, how are you?
This is obviously not a happy Friday as a dark cloud hangs over the world due to the terrible events in Ukraine (more on that below). If you need a distraction over the weekend (I know I do) from being glued to the grim TV news or doomscrolling Twitter, then perhaps take a visit to Tate Modern’s brand new Surrealism exhibition which has just opened. And you could while away a few minutes on the Black Country Living Museum’s TikTok which is active again after a six-month hiatus. Or just enjoy this weekend’s forecast sunshine in the UK. A walk outside is always good for the soul.
Until next time.
Maxwell
This week’s top story
Yesterday’s appalling invasion of Ukraine has rightly received global condemnation, including from the world of museums and culture. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) issued a statement strongly condemning the “violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine” and called on all parties to abide by their international legal obligations to protect heritage. The statement also asked “members of civil society” to help protect the buildings and collections of local museums. The UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said on Twitter that the invasion “must end in failure and result in Pariah status for the regime.” The Auschwitz Memorial museum said in a hugely punchy statement that “this act of barbarity will be judged by history” and that “it is impossible to remain silent while… innocent people are being killed purely because of insane pseudo-imperial megalomania." The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said “Vladimir Putin has misrepresented and misappropriated Holocaust history.” The National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri tweeted that “We grieve with the people of Ukraine.”
There were already fears for Ukraine’s collections as tensions built up pre-invasion, based on the experience of 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea and proxy wars in Donetsk and Luhansk. The Wall Street Journal last week highlighted how dozens of archaeological, historical and art collections were lost in Ukraine in those conflicts, including 30% of the Donetsk Regional Museum of Local History’s 150,000 objects. Despite this experience, the New York Times yesterday stated that “some of the country’s museums were badly prepared” when the invasion began on Thursday. The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, potentially a target in the conflict due its content, worked for 12 hours from 6am yesterday to move the museum’s most important exhibits to a safe location. The Odesa Fine Arts Museum was similarly “hiding arts to the basement.”
As fighting has reached the northern suburbs of Kyiv today, the next few days and hours will be very difficult. And while the plight of the Ukrainian people is rightly the most important focus, the world will also be watching the plight of the country’s cultural heritage with fear too.
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This week’s other stories
The Director of the Whitworth art gallery in Manchester, Alistair Hudson, has been asked to step down from his post after a controversial statement of solidarity with Palestine was displayed - then removed, and then reinstated - in an exhibition last year. The statement created a furore including via a series of complaints about it by UK Lawyers For Israel to the gallery. Its initial removal saw the exhibition’s creators - investigative agency Forensic Architecture - threaten to pull all their work. Hudson’s alleged dismissal led to outrage in the art world. Oliver Basciano, Editor at Large at Art Review called it “a disgrace” and Alistair Brown, and the Policy Manager at the Museums Association said the sacking “seems deeply mistaken, wrong-headed and unethical.” The Art Newspaper
A “once-in-a-lifetime find” of London's largest Roman mosaic to be discovered in 50 years has been uncovered. The two highly decorated panels feature large, colourful flowers, geometric patterns and elaborate motifs in a style unique to the capital. They were found near the Shard in Southwark. Isn’t it just amazing that there are still treasures from Londinium still being discovered. BBC News
Dippy is going back to the Natural History Museum! Which we actually knew from last autumn, but now there’s a date. The 26-metre-long replica Diplodocus will go on show in a display from 27 May, but only until December. The (free) tickets will be bookable soon. Evening Standard
London’s Vagina Museum has a bricks and mortar home once more. After its lease expired in Camden Market in 2019, it’s now moving to a new site in Bethnal Green, just minutes from the Young V&A. It opens on 19 March. Londonist
The pink is being ditched at London’s pinkest restaurant Sketch. The instagrammable eatery will become "sunshine yellow" and will be reimagined as a celebration of African culture by brilliant artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA. It opens next month. Stephen Friedman Gallery
The art market’s greatest divorce has a sequel! Another 30 artworks - including pieces by Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Gerhard Richter - have been revealed from the Macklowe Collection ahead of them going under the hammer at Sotheby’s. To recap: the collection was ordered to be sold by a judge after its owners — the divorced couple, Harry Macklowe and Linda Burg — could not agree on a valuation. The first batch made $676 million last year. You can see the new pieces in London until Wednesday. The Times
The Manhattan home and studio of celebrated Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (who I love) will become an outpost of the Whitney Museum in New York, after the artist’s widow donated it to the institution. It will host the Whitney’s revered Independent Study Program for early career artists, and is the latest chapter in a long history of exchange between Lichtenstein, his estate, and the Whitney. The Art Newspaper
Three sculptures from an ancient site in Iraq and vandalised by Islamic State after it seized control in 2014, have been pieced back together. The Times
And finally
A hearty congratulations to Reyahn King who has said she is soon to bow out running the York Museums Trust after 7 years. She takes up a new position of Director of Heritage Properties at the National Trust for Scotland.
Film stars love museums too. The actual Samuel L Jackson visited the Van Gogh exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery. There’s photographic proof. And Adam Driver went to the Pompidou.
All the content in this newsletter is provided to you for free. Why not buy me a digital coffee if you enjoyed it?