National Gallery BANS liquids
Tough new security measures after attacks on art
— In partnership with HdK
This edition also features: Van Gogh homecoming | Andrew Marr hates the art world
Happy Friday.
I need your help.
In the UK, the clocks go back in a week’s time, and it’s already dark by what feels like 4pm. I’ve come to learn with age — not that this is particularly groundbreaking — that the best tonics in life is to absolutely ensure one gets some winter sunshine, with a dollop of culture.
So help me decide where my annual winter escape should be.
I’ve been to Malaga in December before, and it’s great. 22 degrees, sunshine, blue skies, and the Centre Pompidou to get an art fix by the seaside, and a wonderful Picasso museum. I am really considering returning
I’ve never been to Malta before but always wanted to, because the capital Valetta looks like a city where the streets are the best museum, packed as they are with Baroque architecture and 17th-century fortifications. There’s history at every turn it seems.
My list of new museums to visit is long, but most of them are not really in sunshine destinations in the winter months. Or they’re in far flung places that my budget doesn’t stretch to — yet. Donations for museum travels much appreciated! But one that is, is FAMM (Female Artists of Mougins Museum). It’s the first museum in continental Europe with its own all-female permanent collection, located in the French Riviera. What’s not to love?
Or there’s Lisbon. A city I’ve visited twice and loved, and although wall-to-wall sunshine is not guaranteed, it’s exceedingly pleasant. And for some reason on both my trips I never made it to MAAT, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology. Which really is a shocking oversight I can only apologise for.
So which is it to be, because I genuinely can’t decide? Give me your collective guidance by voting in the poll below. And if you have any recommendations for these places, let me know by replying to this email!
But now let’s dive into this week’s news!
— maxwell
— In partnership with HdK
Is TikTok accessible?
Short form video is EVERYWHERE. Because it’s hugely effective.
From TikTok to Instagram Reels via YouTube Shorts, if you’re not making it then you’re being left behind.
But there is an argument that it’s not an accessible media format.
“There definitely are barriers presented by short form video in making truly accessible content” Bella Richards from arts and culture digital agency HdK told me. “And we know that this puts some cultural organisations off.”
To see if these barriers can be navigated, she’s assembling an expert panel of arts and culture professionals to discuss it for an online audience. Ultimately the panel will ask, is it responsible to participate in an inherently inaccessible format?
“We hope it’ll be a really thoughtful discussion for cultural organisations,” Bella said. “And it’s free so we want as many people to join us as possible.”
Register for the online webinar on 29 October here.
Need To Know
Security tightened after art attacks
From today, visitors are banned from bringing liquids into the National Gallery.
The move is part of a tightening of security at the gallery, which has said has been enforced as a direct response to the recent spate of attacks on artworks by protest groups. It’s been targeted on five separate occasions since July 2022.
The only exceptions to the liquids ban will be baby formula, expressed milk and prescription medicines. The gallery said it was "sorry" to make this decision, and believed entry into the museum will now take longer. But in a statement it added that “such attacks have caused physical damage to the artworks, distress to visitors and staff, and disruption to our mission.”
Two attacks have occurred in the past two weeks, which “is why we have taken the difficult and unfortunate decision to change the way we operate for the foreseeable future” the statement said. (Read more)
🔗 OPINION | The National Gallery's new liquid rules make me want to kick a polar bear — well done eco-activists | Melanie McDonagh in the London Standard
Museum buys the ‘Mona Lisa of Brabant’
One of the most expensive museum purchases of a Van Gogh painting has been made by the Noordbrabants Museum in the Netherlands. It’s bought the artist’s Head of a Woman (Gordina de Groot) for a huge €8.6m, meaning it will now permanently reside in the region it was painted. It’s also the most expensive purchase the museum has ever made.
The Art Newspaper revealed that it was sold by the British art dealer Daniel Katz who told the paper he was “sad to see Gordina go, but it is to the right home.” It’s been on loan to the museum since January, but Katz agreed to a sale after pleading from museum bosses.
Over 3,000 people donated to the fundraising campaign to acquire the work. Director Jacqueline Grandjean expressed gratitude, stating: ‘We’re profoundly thankful to all who contributed. Together, we’re making art history today: Van Gogh’s Gordina is home for eternity!’
The museum will now create a new Van Gogh Wing to display the work, scheduled to open in 2026. (Read more)
News from the UK
Marrdy moan 😱 | The art world “has been corrupted by far too much money, greed and offensive language” journalist and presenter Andrew Marr has said. Marr —who is a trustee of the National Gallery — called Frieze a “carbuncle” that was full of “absurd, ridiculous, badly dressed people.” Speaking at the opening of his friend’s exhibition he also slammed exhibition catalogues, calling the writing “so obscure and so pretentious.” Marr is a painter himself. Who needs enemies! (Read more)
Leaks plugged 💧 | Falmouth’s National Maritime Museum is to close for six weeks in 2025 so it can finally address the leaks it’s suffered for "many years." The roof will be fully repaired after previous fixes failed. Richard Doughty, the director of the museum which houses the national collection of small boats said "There have been too many times when, throughout our building, you could find more buckets to catch the rainwater drips than boats.” The work will cost half-a-million pounds, which has been given to them by Arts Council England. (Read more)
Uniform uncovered 🪖 | Historian Dan Snow has hailed the “amazing” discovery of a rare surviving Napoleonic French uniform which a British prisoner of war disguised himself with, in order to flee back to Britain. It’s gone on display at the National Maritime Museum in London, alongside a handwritten manuscript detailing the soldier’s daring escape. The existence of these artefacts were unknown until the soldier’s descendants offered them to the museum. (Read more)
Slated to close 🏴 | Wales’ National Slate Museum has announced the date it will shut for well over a year for redevelopment — and it’s next month. It’ll close on 4 November until 2026 so the Grade I buildings can conserved and renovated, and the museum expanded. 8,000 items will be moved off site for the £21m overhaul, which is part funded by both the UK and Welsh governments. Jane Richardson, Amgueddfa Cymru’s Chief Executive said it will “transform how we tell the story of slate.” (Read more)
News from around the world
USA 🇺🇸 | Ed Ruscha’s auction record could be smashed next month as the artist’s iconic 1964 Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half goes under the hammer at Christie’s, with an estimate “in excess” of $50 million. Until earlier this month, it was on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as part of the last leg of Ruscha’s retrospective, which will have increased the estimate. His $52.5 million auction record was set in 2019 but that could go for this work, which is the last of the artist’s large-scale canvases from the 1960s in private hands. (Read more)
Egypt 🇪🇬 | It’s an astonishing 11 years late but visitors have finally been allowed inside Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum galleries — but only a small bit of it. Housing the world's largest collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts, the $1bn (£768m) project unveiled a limited number of galleries out-of-the-blue this week, but only for a trial run for 4,000 people. More galleries will open in stages into 2025. There’s no word on when the much-anticipate Tutankhamun collections will go on show. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Park Gogh I | The Van Gogh National Park in the Netherlands has been granted national park status by the Dutch government, which had never been officially awarded despite its name. It’s hoped the status will drive regional development. (More)
Just missed | The revamped National Portrait Gallery lost out to London’s Elizabeth Line for the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize. The RIBA Stirling Prize went to the huge new railway which judges called “a triumph.” (More)
Now departing | Judith McNicol has quit as Director of the National Railway Museum to lead the British Museum’s HR and visitor services teams. She leaves her post in the middle of the Railway Museum’s biggest ever redevelopment. (More)
Park Gogh II | Van Gogh's Starry Night painting has been recreated as a huge park in the Bosnian hills. Yes, really. It’s the realisation of a 20-year dream of local businessman. I’m not wholly convinced of its likeness… (More)
👀 Last week’s most clicked news story | The National Museum Directors' Council issues an open letter to those targeting artworks: 'these attacks have to stop'
📊 Last week’s poll results | Are recent Turbine Hall commissions as good as they used to be?
— Wha?! They're better than ever! 1%
— Good then, and still good now! 11%
— Yes, they've lost that early magic 88%
— Today’s edition took 6 hours to write. Donate so I can treat myself to a pint 🍻