Osborne: Sunak's Parthenon 'hissy fit'
PM denies Osborne's claims as British Museum Chair presses on for deal
Also in this edition: Hunt calls for legislation reform, the 100 most powerful in art, €100m Botticelli recovered, 10-year dispute on Ukraine treasures resolved
Happy Friday.
A warm welcome to the 31 new subscribers since last Friday’s edition.
And a very big thank you for all the lovely feedback I received from you in response to the launch of my new opinion column the 250 Take earlier this week. I’m so pleased so many of you enjoyed the first edition penned by Ed Vaizey on the Parthenon Sculptures (quite a lot more on those below natch), and for the kind words about the format. I’m very excited to be bringing you guest writers every two weeks from now on. (If you missed the first one, catch up here).
I’m typing this after returning from Paris where I attended an event that saw museums from across the Netherlands unveil their 2024 exhibitions to journalists from France and the UK. The trip was organised by Visit Netherlands, and I’m really excited for some of the shows that are planned. There’ll be more to come on these in future emails and on my website, but my top tip right now would be to keep an eye out for a wonderful show on Rembrandt’s art and Amsterdam’s theatre scene coming to the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, and big NEW show on Dior planned for the Kunstmuseum in the Hague.
Now onto this week’s news.
— maxwell
Need To Know
Parthenon plans press on
Despite a major diplomatic with Greece engulfing the UK government this week, British Museum Chair George Osborne believes it is still “50/50” on whether a deal will be reached on displaying some of the marbles currently in London in Athens. He has vowed to press ahead with the museum’s negotiations with the Greek authorities despite admitting “we’re not going to get any particular support from the Conservative government.”
His comments follow UK prime minister Rishi Sunak cancelling a meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, earlier this week after Mitsotakis publicly urged the British government to change its stance on the ownership of the artefacts. On Wednesday, Sunak launched a rare public attack on a diplomatic ally by accusing the Greek PM of “grandstanding,” adding that the talks would not have covered “substantive” issues. The row dominated political news for much of the week in both countries.
Osborne — speaking on his podcast Political Currency — said that Sunak may have had “a bit of a hissy fit,” something which the Prime Minister denied today by saying: “Our view…is crystal clear – the Marbles were acquired legally at the time.” (Read more)
🔗 King Charles raises eyebrows with his tie choice amid UK-Greece dispute — Reuters
🔗 F*** You B******!': Greek newspaper launches vile expletive-laden attack on Rishi Sunak amid the Elgin Marbles row — Mail Online
Trustees ‘infantilised’ by law says Hunt
Amid this week’s Parthenon Sculptures controversy, V&A Director Tristram Hunt made potentially seismic comments saying that the Victoria and Albert Museum was “hidebound by [parliamentary] acts” that prevents trustees from “[beginning] a conversation around restitution and repatriation.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Hunt called for reform of the 1963 British Museum Act and the 1983 National Heritage Act, which restrict ‘deaccessioning’ by many national museums. He said Trustees were “almost infantilised by this legislation because we hide behind it.”
He said he was “a strong believer that trustees of museum collections should have autonomy over those collections, and be able to make the case whether they should retain them within the UK or loan them to other museums around the world” or to discuss returning them to their countries of origin.
He added there was “a worrying political consensus on the front benches that they should be involved in whether museums should lend or return objects.” (Read more)
Art’s most influential is Nan Goldin
Artist Nan Goldin has topped the ArtReview Power 100 list, an annual ranking of the contemporary art world’s most influential people and organisations.
The pioneering photographer — and campaigner against the Sackler family and their involvement with the US opioid epidemic — came first in a top 10 made up entirely of artists for the first time. Curators make up a fifth of the list, with ArtReview saying their access to big biennials and triennials made them instrumental in steering public discussions on issues.
Installation artist Sir Isaac Julien was the highest placed Brit at number five. Artist and film-maker Steve McQueen is at number eight. Other Britons on the list include Tate Director Maria Balshaw at 45 (up from 73 last year) and art dealer and White Cube founder Jay Jopling at 56.
In case helpful context: the list was won in 2021 by NFTs. (Read more)
News from the UK
Coming in 2025 | Tate Modern will unveil the first extensive European exhibition of the artwork of Indigenous Australian painter Emily Kam Kngwarray in 2025. The news came at the media preview of the National Gallery of Australia’s own survey exhibition of the artist’s work which opens tomorrow. Tate Modern director Karin Hindsbo said the move reflects Tate’s ongoing commitment to “better representing Australian art.” (Read more)
16 years and out | The Zabludowicz Collection art space in North London will shut for good after 16 years. Collectors Anita and Poju Zabludowicz amassed 8,000 artworks, but have pulled the plug after 100 free exhibitions and 250,000 visitors. The "Collection will concentrate on increasing loans of artworks to institutions and extending our digital presence and offer" the couple said. (Read more)
Banksy Brexit no more | A £1m Banksy mural painted in response to the UK’s Brexit vote has been destroyed. The work whivh appeared on the side of a building in Dover in 2017 and depicted a worker chipping away at one of the 12 yellow stars on the blue EU flag, was whitewashed over in 2019. But despite attempts to restore it, the building it was on has been demolished for regeneration. (Read more)
Temporary closures | Carlisle’s Tullie museum will shut for at least six months from Christmas Eve while it embarks on the second phase of its multi-year redevelopment. The works will revitalise the entrance and atrium space and create a new retail offer and new gallery. Meanwhile Manchester’s People History Museum will close for the entirety of January while it carries out minor building work to improve accessibility at the venue. (Read more)
News from around the world
Italy 🇮🇹 | A Botticelli painting that vanished from the Italian state’s art records for half a century has been recovered from a family home near Naples. Thought to be worth €100m, it was entrusted to a local family who kept it at a private residence for generations. But 50 years ago it was forgotten by authorities. The work’s been found in poor condition and will undergo extensive restoration work in the hope that it can finally be publicly displayed. (Read more)
Germany 🇩🇪 | A German museum has reportedly canceled an upcoming Candice Breitz show because of the artist’s statements on the violence taking place in Gaza. The Saarlandmuseum has canned the exhibition saying it would not show the art of any artist “who does not clearly recognise Hamas’s terror as a rupture of civilisation.” Breitz told the Art Newspaper that she has “condemned Hamas loudly and unequivocally on a number of occasions.” (Read more)
USA 🇺🇸 | Alicia Keys and husband Swizz Beatz will showcase their vast art collection at the Brooklyn Museum from February. An exhibition will bring together the couple's landmark works by African American artists, with over 40 pieces going on show. Highlights include works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson and Kehinde Wiley. The couple have “created one of the most important collections of contemporary art” museum director Anne Pasternak said. (Read more)
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Rijksmuseum Director Taco Dibbits has revealed they constantly conducted research with departing visitors to dictate how many tickets to sell for this year’s blockbuster Vermeer exhibition. Speaking in London, he said said they decided to “start with low numbers and build up” until they reached a tipping point. “We asked people who came out whether it was an acceptable amount [of people] and when it became unacceptable, then that was the number.” (Read more)
Ukraine 🇺🇦 | Ancient treasures have been returned to Ukraine, after a nearly 10-year dispute over their ownership. 565 items — including Scythian and Sarmatian gold, jewellery, and sculptures — are back from the Netherlands after a Dutch court ruled in favour of Kyiv over Russia. The collection, mostly from Crimean museums, was on loan to Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum when Russia annexed Ukraine's peninsula in 2014. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Osborne news nugget | Also on his podcast this week, George Osborne revealed that on his very first day as UK Chancellor in 2010, the civil service told him to axe the extension to Tate Modern as it was too expensive. He declined.
SMG Chair appointment | Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, former Royal Navy officer and husband of HRH Princess Anne, has today been appointed the Chair the Science Museum Group. He chaired English Heritage from 2015 until 2022. (More)
Meanwhile next door | Former Director-General of the BBC Lord Hall has been appointed a Trustee of the Natural History Museum. Hall previously served less than a year as Chair of the National Gallery before resigning amid the controversy over 1995’s BBC Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. (More)
Give up Gove | Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove is intervening to try to save plans for the (god-awful) MSG Sphere in London after Mayor Sadiq Khan denied it planning permission. (More)
Cheers to that | You can now raise a tinnie or two to National Museums Liverpool as they’ve unveiled a set of craft beers brewed exclusively for its venues across the city. It’s a canny legacy of the city’s Eurovision hosting. (More)
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