Police slam "despicable" museum theft
Bronze Age treasures stolen in midnight raid
— In partnership with Arts & Culture podcast
This edition also features: Birmingham Museums saved | Magna Carta attacked | Natural History Museum gardens | European Museum of the Year
Happy Friday
And so the day is here — the National Gallery in London is 200 years old TODAY. Happy birthday!
The ‘NG200’ was first press released back in February 2021 (at least according to my inbox) so it has felt like Olympic-levels of build up. But it deserves it.
And unlike the Olympics where there are ‘only’ 17 days of elite action to enjoy, the National Gallery today kicks off A WHOLE YEAR of celebrations. It all began this morning with 12 venues across Britain opening National Treasures displays featuring iconic works from the gallery’s collection. Two have never been loaned before, including Botticelli's Venus and Mars. ICYMI, you can read my interviews with most of the venues in my newsletter which landed in your inbox on Tuesday.
And tonight, a spectacular eight-minute light show on the gallery’s facade will dazzle crowds on Trafalgar Square.
It’s funny, when I was younger I never used to like the National Gallery. BORING I thought. But with age comes wisdom, and it’s now one of my favourite spaces in London with artworks I return to again and again. It perhaps is a collection that skews towards adulthood (probs all the death on display) so I can’t be the only one to go on that trajectory right? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
And it’s also funny that the art museum that I thought of as the most stuffy and dusty is now the one leading the way in the ‘digital age’ (see, told you I was old). I’ve been so impressed with their fun, nimble and fearless use of content and platforms to promote their work that I said exactly that in this piece for the Smithsonian Magazine, where I was really delighted to be asked to contribute my thoughts.
So happy birthday National Gallery. Here’s to another incredible 200 years!
— maxwell
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— In partnership with Arts & Culture podcast
Embrace being unapologetically commercial
Culture is the heart and soul of communities — but it needs funding.
The new Chair of the Association for Cultural Enterprises is a massive champion of how commercial activities can deliver that cash in a positive and sustainable way.
Melanie Lewis sets out her inspiring vision for the power of commercial in an honest and in-depth chat on the latest episode of the Arts & Culture podcast.
Mel is stark about the challenges the sector is facing — but she offers clear hope for the future.
For any cultural organisation or professional that wants to chart a better route to financial resilience, it's a must listen.
Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Need To Know
“Despicable” midnight museum raid
A sledgehammer was used by thieves to smash their way into a display case containing some of the UK’s rarest Bronze Age treasures at the Ely Museum in Cambridgeshire. Two remarkable gold objects — nearly 3,000 years old — were stolen in the overnight raid.
Police say suspects forced their way through multiple layers of security using crowbars, and made off on e-scooters. They were caught on CCTV entering the museum. The inspector leading the investigation has called it a “despicable” theft. The Secretary of State Lucy Frazer said it was “deeply concerning.”
The stolen treasures were originally found by metal detectorists in East Cambridgeshire. One — a huge gold torc — was found in 2011 and was hailed at the time as one of he best finds of its kind in over a century. It was acquired by the museum in 2017 through grants and donations.
Curator Elie Hughes said the museum staff and local community are “devastated.” (Read more)
Sale of Birmingham museums is off
Birmingham’s museum buildings and collections will not be sold off by commissioners running the now-bankrupt city council, according the Director of the Trust running them.
Sara Wajid, co-CEO of Birmingham Museums Trust, said they have avoided seeing the assets the Trust runs on behalf of the council being included as part of a massive £1.25bn planned sell-off to balance the books. But Wajid said financial pressures mean just three of the trust’s nine venues are currently open to the public.
She was speaking at an advocacy event for MPs and Peers at the Houses of Parliament, which aimed to raise awareness of the current struggles regional museums are facing. Jenny Waldman, director of Art Fund, told parliamentarians that two-thirds of museum directors have funding concerns. Kim Streets, director of Sheffield Museums, urged immediate financial help, including an end to cuts and an emergency government fund. (Read more)
Fossils help rebuild Brazil museum
Six years after a devastating fire destroyed Brazil’s national museum and 85% of its 20 million artefacts, a major donation of objects has been given to the institution in order to kick-start a campaign to rebuild the museum’s collection.
1,104 remarkable fossils spanning turtles, plants, insects, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs — and all discovered in Brazil — have been given by the Swiss-German collector Burkhard Pohl to the Museu Nacional/ UFRJ.
The donation was mediated by the arts patron Frances Reynolds, who is spearheading a campaign to mobilise the public and private sectors to acquire 10,000 objects through donations and long-term loans in time for the museum’s reopening in 2026.
Pohl said “I've spent decades assembling this collection… I look forward to seeing how this collaboration enriches the museum's offerings and inspires future generations." The museum’s director Alexander Kellner said “Brazil needs its national museum back.”
“We can’t recreate what was lost, but we can show new objects”. (Read more)
News from the UK
Targeted 🔨 | The Magna Carta display at the British Library was this morning attacked in the latest stunt by Just Stop Oil. Two women in their 80s have been arrested for trying to smash the glass case displaying one of the world’s most important documents. They could be heard asking: "Is the government above the law?" The Library said the object itself is thankfully undamaged. (Read more)
Upgraded 👗 | The V&A is planning a major £7 million overhaul of its fashion gallery. The architectural competition for the project has launched, and comes five years after a planned revamp was abandoned due to covid. “The project scope, ambition and team structure have since then changed markedly” the museum says. The new project will see the current gallery’s mezzanine, temporary exhibition area — recently home to DIVA — and shop removed. (Read more)
Overhauled 🏛️ | Tracey Emin will help select the architectural plans that will see the biggest transformation of the British Museum in 200 years. Emin — a museum Trustee — will be on the selection panel headed by Chair George Osborne. The tender to carry out the works on the Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman galleries was launched this week and a public display of the proposals by the finalists will be held before the end of the year. (Read more)
Boosted 💰 | £24.2m has been awarded to 67 organisations as part of Arts Council England’s Capital Investment Fund. Among the museums getting cash are £400,000 to the Postal Museum to improve the accessibility of its Mail Rail ride, £750,000 will go to a refurbishment of Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, and £100,000 has been awarded to improve visitor facilities at the Bronte Parsonage Museum. (Read more)
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News from around the world
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Scammers cloned the website of Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum in order to con would-be visitors into buying fake tickets to the museum’s exhibitions. Around 50 people had their credit card details harvested before the site was taken down. The museum has urged people to make sure they only buy tickets from tickets.vangoghmuseum.com. Thankfully no other Dutch museum seems to have been targeted. (Read more)
Finland 🇫🇮 | The European Museum of the Year Awards have handed their top gong to the Sámi Museum. The museum tells the story of the Sámi people of Finland — the only recognised indigenous culture in Europe. Other prizes went to the Sybir Memorial Museum in Poland which won the Council of Europe Museum Prize for upholding human rights, and the Kalamaja Museum in Estonia won the community engagement prize. (Read more)
Netherlands 🇳🇱 | Huge inflatable art works have taken over a lake in the heart of the Hague. Created by leading Dutch designers they are part of a three-week immersive outdoor exhibition that opened yesterday. The stunning backdrop to the exhibition is the Dutch Houses of Parliament, the oldest in-use parliament building in the world. It’s the third year of BlowUp Art The Hague and curator Mary Hessing said the aim was to “keep people surprised.” (Read more)
Australia 🇦🇺 | The women-only art exhibition in Tasmania which a court ruled must start allowing men access to as it was discriminatory, will now be turned into a toilet instead to keep them out. The Museum of Old and New Art have appealed the court ruling, but the artist behind it says “there is a fabulous toilet coming.” In the interim, works by Picasso and others will be moved into the existing ladies loos. And on Sundays only, men WILL be allowed access — but only to learn ironing. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Fixing 🛠️ | Repair work has begun on the remarkable 1830 viaduct at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum. It was a vital aspect of the world’s first railway station, which is now the museum’s site. (More)
Popular 🏴 | Over half a million people have now visited the major new Scottish galleries at the National in Edinburgh since opening seven months ago. Previously, only 19% of visitors made their way to the former Scottish wing. That’s now rocketed to 62%. (More)
Majestic 👑 | HM The King has become Royal Patron of the RAF Museum. The national museum with two sites in England expressed its "heartfelt gratitude" to Charles III for his patronage. (More)
Opening 🪴 | The Natural History Museum’s reimagined gardens will open to the public on 18 July. The free outdoor spaces — their first full revamp in 140 years — aim to showcase 2.7 billion years of history. (More)
👀 Last week’s most read news | Two men charged over felling of Sycamore Gap tree
📊 Last week’s poll results | Should UK national museums abolish free entry? 🟢 Yes 8% | 🔴 No 72% | 🟠 Charge foreign visitors only 19%.
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