Parthenon sculptures belong in UK says Culture Secretary
High profile comments cool expectations over a deal with Greece
Also in this edition
National Science and Media Museum to close for a year
World is going dotty for Yayoi Kusama and Louis Vuitton
Science Museum wanted…the Millennium Dome
Happy new year! (How much longer do you think we can say that? I reckon there’s still a good week to go.)
It’s the first newsletter of the year and I’m excited to be back. I hope you had a lovely festive period and are raring to go for the year ahead. I know certainly am, and I have some very exciting maxwell museums news to reveal very soon.
In the meantime, I ask you to think if you know any friends or colleagues whose 2023 may be improved if they had this newsletter land in their inbox. Will it brighten up a museum-lover’s Friday, or will it make a museum-worker better at their job by keeping up-to-date with all the news from around the world? If it’s a yes for either, then please share it with them below, and tell them to subscribe. It will certainly make my year.
Now let’s read on for the first time in 2023!
Maxwell
News from the UK
What’s the deal with the Parthenon Sculptures? Literally. It seemed a deal was imminent that would see those that are currently in the British Museum sent over to Greece in a historical first, likely in exchange for other treasures being lent to the UK. But in a series of interviews this week, the UK Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan has poured cold water all over it. The Parthenon Sculptures "belong here in the UK" and should not be returned to Greece, she told the BBC’s Media Show. To the News Agents podcast she went further, saying if a deal was struck between the British Museum and the Athens that the British government didn’t like, it could change the law to stop it happening (which surely tests the principle of arms-length bodies to the limit). But most interesting of all were her revelations of regular conversations with the Chair of the British Museum, George Osborne, about the matter. "I think his view on this has been misinterpreted and certainly portrayed wrongly," she said. "He's not about to send them back, basically. That's not his intention. He has no desire to do that. There's also been this concept of a 100-year loan mooted as well, which is certainly not what he's planning either. He would agree with me that we shouldn't be sending them back, and actually they do belong here in the UK, where we've cared for them for a great deal of time, where we've allowed access to them." She’s pretty definitive, suggesting it both accurately reflects his view, and that it’s being said with his consent. So was this a deliberate intervention? Is it expectation management, or an attempt to more accurately reflect what’s on the table? Cynics may suggest it’s always been the intention for the British Museum to look like it’s willing to make progress, only to claim laws and government were blocking the final steps (not a view I subscribe to). Whatever the reason, such strong comments firmly puts the British government in the middle of this, in a way they were previously reluctant to be. Now any deal will have to be seen in relation to the government’s consent. Whether that’s a help or a hindrance to Osborne’s negotiations is still unknown.
The first major exhibition in the UK to examine the contemporary Indian sari is to open at the Design Museum in London. Over 90 trailblazing examples of the garment will go on display in the landmark show, and nearly all will be on loan from designers and studios across India. A highlight will be the first sari worn at the Met Gala in New York. Designed by Sabyasachi Mukherjee and styled with a gold Schiaparelli bodice, and worn by Indian businessperson and socialite Natasha Poonawalla. It made headlines around the world for its dramatic mix of Indian and western couture, and its the first time it will have been displayed in Britain.
One of London’s most loved ‘hidden gem’ museums has announced it will reopen in March. The Hunterian Museum — England’s largest public display of human anatomy — will welcome visitors again after a much-delayed, £4.6 million redevelopment (although it’s rather strange they can’t give an exact date just two months out. With my PR hat on, that’s a big thumbs down.) One item that won’t be on display however, is the skeleton of Charles Byrne, an Irishman who measured 7 feet 7 inches tall and was a celebrity in 18th century London due to his immense size. The skeleton has been the museum’s most famous exhibit for over 200 years, but it’s reported that Byrne’s wishes were firmly that his body wouldn’t end up in a museum. The Trustees have now said it won’t be displayed any more due to 'sensitivities', but that it will still be available for 'bona fide medical research.'
Britain’s most famous dinosaur, Dippy the Diplodocus, is being sent to Coventry. The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum will host the famous dino cast for a three-year residency from February, after the Natural History Museum sought a home for it on long-term loan. More than two million people went to see Dippy while it was travelling around the UK on a tour, with another million visitors filing past on its recent temporary return to London. Quite a draw then. The Herbet will be delighted.
The National Science and Media Museum, part of the Science Museum Group of national museums, is to close for a year for a £6m transformation ahead of Bradford's year as UK City of Culture in 2025. Two floors of the museum will be remodelled, creating two new galleries on the themes of photography, film, TV, animation and video games. It’ll shut in June so be quick if you want to visit.
Dundee has been announced as the location for the internationally renowned contemporary art festival Art Night in June 2023, the first time the event has taken place outside London. Scheduled for 24 June, the event will take place over one weekend and will be home to 10 new commissions by both internationally established and emerging artists in public spaces across the city.
News from around the world
The world is going dotty for Yayoi Kusama — and its all thanks to Louis Vuitton. The luxury mega-brand has teamed up with the art mega-brand to do a huge release of products and clothing which is available at all 460 Louis Vuitton' boutiques across the globe. There’s even £300 bottles of perfume. But what’s really got everyone talking is the accompanying advertising and PR blitz. A robot Kusama is turning heads and stopping traffic with its hyper-realistic movements and grimaces in New York’s LV store, while in Paris, its Maison Champs-Élysées flagship has a giant Kusama on the roof painting polkadots on the facade. My favourite though is the 3D anamorphic Billboard in Tokyo. A Reel of it has had 10 million views on Instagram. Watch it below.
The Louvre is deliberately trying to lose its crown at the world’s most visited museum. After hitting a record 10 million visitors in 2018, the Louvre director Laurence des Cars has decided this needs to be cut. The pandemic got a head start on this decision, decimating the numbers due to lockdowns, but in 2022 visits had crept back to nearly 8 million. New targets will now prevent this number from growing any higher, and would represent a cap at a similar visitor level as experienced 17 years ago. The move is “so the visit would be a [more] pleasurable experience, especially for first-timers to the museum who make up 60% of entries" des Cars said in a statement, adding that she is "the first museum director to consciously decide to limit the number of visitors." Which is quite possibly the strangest boast I’ve heard from a museum director in a long while.
Speaking of the Louvre, I bet they were delighted this week when a TikTok video sparked mass confusion by claiming the Mona Lisa had been stolen. It shows a succession of police cars going by what appears to be the Arc de Triomphe. “POV: your in Paris when the Mona Lisa has been stolen,” text overlaid on top reads. In true TikTok fashion, that’s all it took to push the views to nearly 10 million, and to spark international headlines about people being tricked into thinking the masterpiece had been snatched. The modern world hey? Watch the TikTok below
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And finally
The Tiger Who Came to Tea has come to Leicester for a new exhibition
Recently released documents have revealed that the Science Museum wanted to have the Millennium Dome….and to move it to Swindon.
What you doing at 20:23 tonight? And every night this month for that matter? Well the Dalai Lama will be offering a message of hope on the big screens of Piccadilly Circus as part of a special digital art project by CIRCA.
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