iPhone designer joins British Museum
PLUS: Revived Rubens doubts at National Gallery
Friday 20 June 2025 | news from museums, galleries, heritage and art, including:
English country house treasures head to Hague 🖼️
Mona Lisa surcharge for new wing at Louvre 💷
Sting supports major museum fundraising campaign 🎤
Happy Friday.
Last week I opened this newsletter with all the London landmarks I haven’t visited, despite living in this city 16 years.
I had a lovely response to it — including a few offers of visits to the places I mentioned I’d yet to cross the threshold of. Thank you if you were one of them!
But naturally it did get me wondering about which cities are my favourites to be an actual tourist in.
Up there at the top has to be the city I’ve visited the most in my life — Berlin. Despite seven (or maybe eight?) trips, I never tire of it. The architecture, the history, the museums. Yes, I even love the TV tower and the bitter cold in winter (just).
I came late to the Belgium capital, but it’s now one of my most-loved places to visit. Anyone that says it’s boring is WRONG. Just skip the Grand-Place and get exploring on foot. My most recent visit took me to Europe’s largest roof terrace.
I’ve come to love Europe’s smaller cities too. In this age of overtourism, I think it’s win-win to head away from the crowds where PLENTY of hidden gems can be found.
Antwerp and the Hague probably top my recommendations for this, but special mentions should go to Lyon, Bologna, and Cork.
When it comes to off-the-beaten-track landmarks I can recommend, here’s three: the mind-blowingly-humongous Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest (also the world’s heaviest building), the Victory Lighthouse in Trieste with its stunning views across the Adriatic, and the Citadel in Amman in Jordan with its incredible ancient story.
An honourable mention of a big city where I’ve relished the tourist trail is Washington DC. The Smithsonian AND you feel like you’re in the West Wing? Unbeatable.
But when weighing it all up, I find it hard to top the city that’s been my favourite since my very first visit. It’s not a hidden-gem, it’s not up-and-coming, it’s a metropolis that nearly 30 million people visit every year. You cannot get better than Paris.
Whether strolling in the Jardin de Luxembourg, taking in the views of the Notre Dame, perusing the books at Shakespeare and Co, and yes, even ascending the Eiffel Tower (even more so since Celine Dion sang on top of it during the sodden 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony, AKA the greatest TV moment of the decade) this is the city of tourist dreams for me. That it’s home to incredible museums is a bonus, from the Louvre and the Musee Rodin, to the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the stunning Cité de l'architecture & du patrimoine.
Mais oui, I want to hear your favourites. What hidden-gems have I missed, and where do you love being tourist with no shame? Hit reply to this email to let me know! I might feature some recommendations in next week’s newsletter!
Now let’s dive into the news!
maxwell
Top stories 🚨
Revived Rubens doubts at National Gallery
Is the National Gallery’s Samson and Delilah painting by Rubens a fake? Doubts have been revived after mixed comments from the former curator responsible for it.
The work was acquired as a long-lost painting by the 17th-century Flemish master in 1980, for a then-record £2.5m. But skeptics including Michael Daley, the director of ArtWatch UK, says there’s “a top-down conspiracy to conceal a massive purchasing blunder.”
Speaking to the Guardian this week, former gallery curator Christopher Brown insisted the painting was authentic, but said it was the National Gallery who had glued the current modern board to the painting’s back. Its attachment has resulted in crucial authenticating details being permanently removed, so critics believe the timing of its addition crucial.
However after the newspaper approached the gallery for comment, Brown clarified that “The National Gallery says that the backboard was applied before its acquisition. I have no reason to disbelieve them.” The gallery’s own statement pointed to a 1983 investigation that included an “unequivocal statement that the panel was attached…before the picture was acquired.” (Read more)
🔗 OPINION | That muscular back! Those fleshy breasts! The National Gallery’s ‘fake’ Rubens looks very real to me | Jonathan Jones in the Guardian
Country house treasures head to Hague
Three of Britain’s most well-known country houses are lending artworks to a major upcoming exhibition exploring the phenomenon of the 18th century Grand Tour.
Opening at the Mauritshuis in the Hague in September, the exhibition — titled The Grand Tour: Destination Italy — will show items from Holkham Hall, Burghley House and Woburn Abbey to tell the story of how young, mostly aristocratic men took a rite of passage trip across Europe to experience art and architecture and to collect along the way.
17 items are being loaned from Holkham Hall in Norfolk. At a press conference this week attended by maxwell museums, the Hall’s curator revealed this will be first time the complete story of it’s remarkable collection will be told in an overseas museum.
Holkham and its treasures were created from the Grand Tour of the 1st Earl of Leicester. Current Earl of Leicester Thomas Coke told me and other press that looking after Holkham’s collection was “a great privilege.”
Mona Lisa surcharge for new wing
An entire Mona Lisa ‘tour’ is be created around the da Vinci painting when it’s moved to a new dedicated gallery, the Louvre’s director has revealed.
The €800 million project to overhaul the world’s busiest museum has been green lit by France’s heritage body, and Laurence des Cars has revealed it will now include a vast 3,000 square meter Mona Lisa ‘journey’ for visitors who want to glimpse the masterpiece. This new experience — expected to open in 2031 — will all be in a new underground wing, and will require a surcharge on top of standard museum admission to enter.
“It will not only allow visitors to contemplate the Mona Lisa… but also to understand it” des Cars said. (Read more)
The news comes in the same week the museum was forced to close for much of Monday due to a wildcat strike resulting from an internal monthly staff meeting. A union rep said later the spontaneous action was because staff “are so exhausted.” (Read more)
UK news 🇬🇧
iPhone designer appointed to British Museum 📲
Sir Jony Ive — who designed Apple’s iMac, iPod and iPhone — has been appointed a trustee of the British Museum. Chair George Osborne said there’s “no one on earth better equipped” to help the museum “lead in bringing great design and the latest technology together.” Ive has also just joined ChatGPT owners OpenAI in a much-publicised £4.7bn deal that the New Yorker magazine said will “force AI into your life.” (Read more)
Sting supports major fundraising campaign 🎤
17-time Grammy Award-winner Sting has made a “generous” — but undisclosed —financial gift to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, which marks the kick-off of a major fundraising campaign. The Baltic wants to raise £10m for an endowment, which will ensure annual income for the gallery. “The culture of the North East made me who I am” Sting said. “I’m hoping that my donation… will encourage others to give.” (Read more)
Pitzhanger plots print retrospective 📆
The largest museum exhibition of original prints by the acclaimed British artist Howard Hodgkin will open at London’s Pitzhanger Manor this autumn. 60 emotionally charged prints that span his five decade career will be seen, on loan from the Cristea Roberts Gallery and the Hodgkin estate. Highlights include Swimming which he created as an official poster for the London 2012 Olympics. (Read more)
Global news 🌎
Egypt 🇪🇬
The long-awaited official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum has been postponed yet again, just weeks before the final stage of the two-decade construction was due to be completed. Egypt’s tourism minister said the delay was due to the current Israel-Iran conflict and would take place instead at the end of the year. Most of the museum is already open but its flagship Tutankhamen galleries are yet to be unveiled. (Read more)
USA 🇺🇸
The first Marcel Duchamp retrospective in North America for half a century will open at MoMA in New York in spring next year. 300 artworks will be shown, spanning all six decades of his career and every medium he worked in. It will be a collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art who will host it in autumn 2026. A version will then travel to Paris, to be staged by Centre Pompidou at their temporary home of Grand Palais in 2027. (Read more)
Netherlands 🇳🇱
The first ever solo exhibition by British artist Ryan Gander opened today in the Netherlands. Over 20 of Gander’s bronze ballerinas are now on show from around the world at the Museum Beelden aan Zee near the Hague — he’s never exhibited more than one in a single venue before. They can be seen alongside a rare loan of the work that inspired them — Edgar Degas’ 1922 sculpture Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans. (Read more)
Belgium 🇧🇪
Artist Hew Locke has said his major commission to re-contextualise Ostend’s statue of King Leopold II has been cancelled. Locke said he was “really disappointed” at the revoking of the project, claiming the Council told him not enough public consultation had taken place. Locke said that he’d offered to explore more consultation and to halve the installation’s lifespan, but that his emails went unanswered. (Read more)
Italy 🇮🇹
An “extremely fragile” artwork of a crystal-covered chair has been damaged after a visitor accidentally crushed it while pretending to sit on it for a photo. Film footage shows the man and his fellow guest fleeing after the incident. The Palazzo Maffei museum in Verona said they had notified police, and issued a plea for people to be “more respectful” to artworks. Artist Nicola Bolla said it the damage was “an idiotic thing to do.” (Read more)
News in brief 🗞️
Let them see Marie
Tickets for the V&A’s Marie Antoinette exhibition have gone on sale, as more highlights have been revealed. A number of items that have never left France before will be seen, including her dinner service from the Petit Trianon castle. (More)
No more museum cash
A charitable foundation which has awarded over £6.3m to 50 organisations over 11 years, has axed its dedicated financial support to museums and galleries. The John Ellerman Foundation will now focus on the “planetary crisis.” (More)
maxwell museums interviewee gets CBE
Tim Reeve has been awarded a CBE in the King’s birthday honours. Reeve — who led the V&A East Storehouse project — was recognised for services to museums. There was also an OBE for Alex Farquharson, Tate Britain director. (More)
Pink paint thrown at Picasso
A climate protester has been arrested after attacking a Picasso painting at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum’s Director said he was “deeply dismayed” by the incident. Thankfully it was undamaged. (More)
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👀 Last week’s most clicked news story
— Smithsonian Director of the National Portrait Gallery quits after Trump ‘firing’
📊 Last week’s poll results | Do you support schools that have banned trips to the Science Museum because of its sponsors?
— Yes 42%
— No 58%
📊 This week’s poll