Global museum leaders “deeply shaken"
92 museum directors speak out against continued targeting by climate activists
Also in this issue:
40-year row at the National Gallery reignites
Edvard Munch’s the Scream is latest anti-oil target
The biggest sale in auction history stuns the art world
Hello. And thank you for choosing to take some time out from watching (between your fingers) the car crash that is Twitter. Shakespeare couldn’t write as good a farce - it’s certainly kept me entertained. Elon Musk is making Liz Truss look like a real steady pair of hands.
On another social media platform this week (Instagram - FOLLOW ME HERE!), I posted about my hugely exciting recent meeting with Portugal’s world-renowned street artist Bordalo II. I was lucky enough to get a private tour with the man himself around his incredible new exhibition Evilution. It was buzzing when I was there - not surprising when he has over 300,000 insta followers. Lisbonites are flocking to see the work of the artist who has been transforming their city’s streets for years. If you’re visiting soon, I definitely recommend you go.
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Now let’s get into the news!
Maxwell
News from the UK
Rows over the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing extension have reignited - 40 years after they first began. To recap: the Gallery wants to radically remodel the entrance to the Wing, first built in 1991, to make it more welcoming in time for the NG’s bicentenary in 2024. The argument is that it’s now the defacto main entrance and not suitable for today’s millions of visitors. But many people have criticised the plans, including eight former presidents of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) who said the plans would turn the building into an airport lounge. Yet now, the backlash to the backlash has begun. The current president of RIBA has hit out at his eight predecessors (are you keeping up?), accusing them of a “nostalgia for a reinvented and reimagined past.” Gabriele Finaldi, the National Gallery’s director, also responded, writing in the Art Newspaper that the plans will create an entrance fit for today’s public. And neighbour the National Portrait Gallery has also come out in support of the plans (although tbf, how awkward would it have been if they hadn’t). There’s still 18 months until the bicentenary, so I imagine this one still has far to run. Read more
Following last week’s edition revealing that the British Museum’s £1 billion masterplan had been agreed, the museum’s Chair George Osborne has also opened the door to temporarily returning some of its greatest objects - but he’s insisted that the museum must not be careless. “We hear the voices calling for restitution,” the former chancellor told the museum’s annual trustees’ dinner. “But creating this global British Museum was the dedicated work of many generations. Dismantling it must not become the careless act of a single generation” he said. While he insisted that the collections would not be permanently broken up, he hinted at the possibility that “some of our greatest objects” could return to their countries of origin if common ground could be found. Read more
An extremely rare Art Deco tea and coffee set that was previously owned by the designer Karl Lagerfeld has been purchased by the V&A for its Wedgwood Collection. The Campanula set was designed by Paul Follot for Wedgwood and was acquired from the estate of the designer, a knowledgeable and voracious collector, who died in 2019. No other examples of the pattern, or even the shape, are known to exist. The V&A Wedgwood Collection is one of the most important industrial collections in the world and a unique record of over 260 years of British ceramic production. The tea set is now on display at the collection’s home in Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent. Read more
A new museum in the city of Perth in Scotland held a public consultation on what it should be called. The winning choice was… Perth Museum (well duh). 60% of people in a public consultation picked "the obvious choice," preferring it over other ideas such as ‘The Sparkling Museum of Perth’ (thank god sense prevailed on that one). The new £26.5 million museum will open to the public in 2024. Read more
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History has unveiled its first major revamp in more than 20 years. It holds an internationally significant collection of geological and zoological specimens, but it hadn’t been updated since the early 2000s when under 200,000 people would visit each year. Now it welcomes 750,000 meaning an update was needed. A further 16 new exhibits will open in spring 2024. Read more
News from Around the World
Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans has been targeted by climate protesters. The prints - on display at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) - were defaced with blue spray paint, and activists attempted to glue themselves to the works. The works were quickly cleaned and rehung, but the protesters fled the scene. “The National Gallery does not wish to promote these actions and has no further comment” the venue said. Read more
Breaking news on Friday lunchtime. Edvard Munch’s the Scream is the latest famous artwork to be targeted by climate activists. Norwegian police said two people tried in vain today to glue themselves to the painting at the National Museum of Art in Oslo. The suspects have been arrested. The museum said that the room where the glass-protected painting is exhibited “was emptied of the public and closed,” and will reopen as soon as possible. (The fact that this attempted protest failed due to quick thinking security perhaps speaks to the fact that the painting was stolen in 1994. It’s difficult to see how these ongoing attacks won’t result in increased security around many other major works in future). Read more
With all the above in mind, the continued targeting of artworks by anti-oil protesters has prompted 92 leaders of some of the world’s biggest museums and galleries to speak out. They warned that activists “severely underestimate the fragility of these irreplaceable objects.” Laurence des Cars of the Louvre, Glenn Lowry of MoMA, and the 90 others say they are “deeply shaken” by recent attacks on works at venues such as the National Gallery in London. Other signatories include the heads of the Prado, the British Museum and the Met. Read more
The hammer has come down on the biggest sale in auction history - and it was HUGE. The sale of the collection of the Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen hit the $1.5 billion mark at Christie’s New York on Wednesday night, marking the first time an auction has surpassed a billion dollars. $100 million for a single work is usually the signifier of an exclusive top-tier sale. Here, five lots exceeded that mark. There were queues two hours long ahead of the event in order to view the works by artists such as van Gogh and Cezanne. No doubt partly because many will be dispersed into private collections across the world and may never be seen again. But at least all the money raised will go to charity, as Allen directed in his will. Read more
One of the Louvre’s most famous paintings by da Vinci (no not that one) has a new home. Leonardo’s Saint John the Baptist has been unveiled at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, where it will remain for the next two years. It’s part of the UAE-based gallery’s fifth anniversary celebrations, and part of the $1 billion, 50-year naming deal with the French museum. Read more
And finally
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It opened briefly for the (hugely successful) Commonwealth Games, but Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is shutting it’s doors again to complete its major refurbishment works. You have until Sunday to visit, otherwise you’ll have to wait until 2024.
There’s a new Director of the Courtauld Gallery in London, their first in nearly 20 years.
Kylie Minogue forgot her favourite Manolo Blahnik’s were actually in the V&A. We’ve all been there.
