New Deputy at British Museum
Dr Carl Heron will succeed Dr Jonathan Williams amid theft fallout
Also in this edition: Banksy is box office hit, Great Fire of London breakthrough, ancient Welsh monument vandalised, lost Constable rediscovered, last chance Kusama
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Happy Friday.
It’s September (wasn’t it literally April about three days ago?). The new month means that all eyes are turning to the V&A and their Coco Chanel exhibition. The posters are already all over London, the digital ads are inescapable on Insta, and the show was even given the full back page ad treatment on the Evening Standard last week. Which let me tell you ain’t cheap. The fact that the advertising blitz has started weeks out from the show’s opening (usually unheard of in museum-land) this is clearly not an exhibition with tight purse strings. Expectations are just cranking up even higher.
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Maxwell
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Need To Know
“Non-normal duties”
Just an hour after last week’s newsletter was sent with the news that Director Hartwig Fischer was resigning immediately, it was revealed that Deputy Director Jonathan Williams had agreed to “voluntarily step back from his normal duties” until an independent review into the recent collection thefts had reported.
The scandal’s whistleblower, Ittai Gradel, said this stance was “pathetic.” “Does he have any non-normal duties?” he asked the Sunday Times. Gradel called on Williams to resign immediately as his responsibility was “very much bigger” than that of Fischer. Williams has for now been replaced by the “highly-respected” Dr Carl Heron, director of scientific research at the museum, on an interim basis. An announcement on the interim Director was due mid-week but has yet to appear.
On Saturday, Museum Chair George Osborne gave his first interview on the story. He admitted the number of missing objects was closer to 2,000 than the widely reported 1,500, but said that some had already been recovered. He rejected claims there had been a “deliberate cover-up” but said institutional “groupthink” may have caused the museum to fail to act on tip-offs.
Meanwhile a Welsh nationalist MP has called for Welsh items in the British Museum collection to be returned to Wales — and a major Chinese state-run newspaper has urged the return of its "stolen" artefacts, in an editorial on the eve of a rare visit by the UK foreign secretary.
Box office Banksy
“It’s been a blast.” That was Banksy’s parting words to the city of Glasgow as his first solo exhibition in 14 years — Cut & Run — came to end at the Gallery of Modern Art. 180,000 visitors saw the show during its a ten-week run — a record for the gallery. The message appeared on the exhibition’s webpage on the final day.
Glasgow Life, which runs the city's museums and galleries, said ticket-holders had also gifted around £10,000 to the gallery via card machines, which were positioned near the exit. But the visitor numbers were well down on the artist’s last solo show at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, which drew in over 300,000 people in its six-week run in 2009.
There was speculation that Banksy had left another parting gift to the city, when locals spotted that the famous Duke of Wellington statue — which is Banksy’s favourite artwork in the UK — had been given some new headgear. But it was confirmed not to be from the artist, meaning the real source remains a mystery. (Read more)
Totem begins return
An 11m, one-tonne hand-carved totem pole has begun a journey to return to Canada from the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh where it has been on display for nearly a century. Its mammoth 4,200-mile journey — involving the Canadian air force — started on Monday with a spiritual ceremony to put the pole into a sleeping state.
The piece will return to the Nass Valley in British Columbia following a request from the Nisga’a nation, one of the Indigenous groups who were the original inhabitants of Canada. The Nisga’a argue it was stolen and the museum acknowledges it was bought from someone who did not have the cultural authority to sell it. It’s due to appear at a public arrival ceremony on 29 September.
The return of the pole has been agreed in less than a year and signed off by the Scottish government. Museum curator John Giblin acknowledged that the totem pole would be “really missed, but we recognise that we’ve had the benefit of its presence for the last 90 years or more.” (Read more)
News from the UK
Dundee donors removed | V&A Dundee have become the latest in a long-line of UK museums removing the Sackler name from their donor boards, effectively signalling a cutting of ties to the controversial family. The Scottish museum had accepted a £500,000 donation from the Sackler Trust before it opened in 2018, but a spokesperson said the Trustee board had decided to remove the final piece of crediting last month. (Read more)
Museum’s next phase | The custodians of the new Perth Museum in Scotland have officially been handed the keys to the £27 million new venue. Run by a charity on behalf of the local authority, the museum will be the new home of the Stone of Destiny – also known as the Stone of Scone – which is used in the coronation of UK monarchs. It’s due to open in Spring 2024. (Read more)
Ancient monument vandalised | A man who filmed himself damaging an ancient 4,500-year-old artwork has been ordered to pay for its restoration in a landmark prosecution. Julian Baker admitted deliberately harming the Bronze Age monument in Caerphilly, South Wales, and posting the footage on Facebook. He refused to say why he had done it. Officials said Baker had ruined part of the work beyond repair, and he was also given a suspended custodial sentence. (Read more)
Museum Wales accusations | Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales has been accused of institutional racism by its manager of decolonising collections. In a strongly-worded resignation letter, Jessica Dunrod — appointed to the newly-created role last year — claimed she’d been prevented from doing the job, and blasted the museum’s “toxic working environment”. Museum Wales said in a statement “An independent investigation was undertaken in response to this matter and none of the issues identified in the resignation letter were upheld.” (Read more)
Revealed: fire finder | In time for tomorrow’s 357th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, research carried out for the Museum of London has solved the mystery of who first raised the alarm of the unfolding disaster on Pudding Lane. It was baker Thomas Dagger. The identity of Dagger came to light from letters, pamphlets, legal and guild records, and the research will inform the reimagined Great Fire gallery when the museum reopens in 2026. (Read more)
News from around the world
USA | An 1,800-year-old headless statue, believed to depict Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, has been seized from the Cleveland Museum of Art after allegations it was looted. The bronze artwork was taken earlier this month by New York investigators who are probing claims that it was looted in the 1960s from Bubon, southern Turkey. Authorities have not yet said how the sculpture arrived in Ohio. (Read more)
Guernsey | A lost John Constable painting featuring the same cottage he depicted in his masterpiece The Hay Wain has been rediscovered in a private collection in Guernsey, after being lost for 40 years. It was last exhibited in 1899 before being sold into private hands, with its last record in 1979. It’ll now go on auction after being discovered among an anonymous person’s estate. Love a good rediscovery story. (Read more)
Canada | The Director of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg — Mikhail Piotrovsky — has been sanctioned by the Canadian government for his support of the invasion of Ukraine. Other than Ukraine, Canada is the first country to impose sanctions on Piotrovsky, who has been a prominent Russian cultural voice supporting the war, and is close to Vladamir Putin according to the Art Newspaper. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Two Tate hires | Tate has expanded its curatorial remit and appointed two new roles — specialising in ecology and Indigenous art respectively. They will sit within the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational hub. (More)
HRP’s ULEZ hack | Some clumsy copywriting on the Hampton Court Palace website seemed to suggest how visitors in cars could avoid London’s new £12.50 ULEZ charge. Suffice to say it made all the papers — and has now been changed. (More)
Chief Exec quits | The Chief Executive of the charity behind Brunel’s SS Great Britain attraction is to stand down after 23 YEARS. Dr Matthew Tanner MBE will leave at the end of the month. (More)
Islandmagee Witches VR | The last witchcraft trial to take place on the island of Ireland is being brought to life in a new VR experience at the Carrickfergus Museum. The headsets will transform visitors into one the accused witches. (More)
Last Kusama tickets | What’s rumoured to be the (actual) final ticket drop for Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms at Tate Modern will happen on Thursday 7 Sept. Members get them 48 hours earlier. (More)
How to hire ethically | We the Museum — by Better Lemon Creative Audio — is the podcast for museum workers. Listen to a new episode examining the good and bad of museum hiring, with grassroots group Fair Museum Jobs. (Listen)*
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Thank you Maxwell