Series with 370m views echoes Chinese state media calls for return of cultural relics
A viral series on the Chinese version of TikTok about a jade teapot that turns into a woman and escapes from the British Museum is to be adapted into an animated film.
The plot of Escape from the British Museum, a series made by two social media influencers, echoes Chinese state media calls for the British government to make amends for “historical sins” and return Chinese cultural relics.
Continue reading...Former head of V&A has suggested Parthenon marbles could be shared with Greece
A former head of the V&A Museum, who previously suggested the Parthenon marbles could be shared with Greece, has been put forward as the interim director of the British Museum.
Sir Mark Jones will replace Hartwig Fischer, who quit after it emerged thousands of objects had been stolen from the museum’s collection. A police investigation is under way regarding the reported thefts.
Continue reading...Fischer to step down after blunders prompt international embarrassment and questions about systemic failures
The head of the British Museum has resigned and his deputy has stepped back over its handling of the suspected widespread theft of artefacts following a string of blunders that have prompted international embarrassment and questions about systemic failures.
Hartwig Fischer said on Friday he accepted responsibility for the museum’s failure to properly respond to warnings about the suspected thefts of thousands of objects in 2021.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Yilin Wang claims she did not receive any credit for translations of Qiu Jin’s work in the China’s Hidden Century exhibition
The British Museum is removing a segment of its landmark exhibition on China after a writer alleged that her translations of a Chinese revolutionary’s poetry had been “plagiarised”.
Yilin Wang, an award-winning translator, poet and editor who lives in Vancouver, said she did not receive any credit or reimbursement for translations of Qiu Jin’s work that she claims are hers. They appeared in the exhibition and catalogue of the museum’s China’s Hidden Century exhibition.
Continue reading...Metal used for west African artworks was acquired from manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the slave trade
Scientists have discovered that some of the Benin bronzes were made with brass mined thousands of miles away in the German Rhineland.
The Edo people in the Kingdom of Benin, modern Nigeria, created their extraordinary sculptures with melted down brass manilla bracelets, the grim currency of the transatlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Continue reading...PM says British Museum collection is funded by taxpayers and protected by law
Rishi Sunak has vowed to protect the Parthenon marbles from being returned to Greece, saying they remain a “huge asset” to the UK.
The prime minister stuck by commitments made by his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson to safeguard the treasures at the British Museum in London.
Continue reading...Ex-PM criticises sensitivity edit of author’s works – and also rejects sending Parthenon marbles to Greece
Boris Johnson has criticised a publisher’s rewriting of some language in Roald Dahl’s stories by reciting a song by the Oompa-Loompas.
The former prime minister expressed his “irritation at wokeness and political correctness” after Puffin made extensive changes to the author’s work to remove language it deemed offensive.
Continue reading...Artefacts looted in 19th century by UK soldiers and sold on, with many more still held by the British Museum
Twenty-one precious artefacts that were looted by British soldiers from the former west African kingdom of Benin 125 years ago have been handed over by Germany to Nigeria amid laughter, tears, and some audible frustration with the ongoing silence of the country that first stole them.
The objects from the haul of treasures known as the Benin bronzes, including a brass head of an oba (king), a ceremonial ada and a throne depicting a coiled-up python, were taken from the sacked city during a British punitive expedition in 1897 and later sold to German museums in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne.
Continue reading...Three 2,500-year-old pieces will be ‘donated’ to Greece’s Archbishop Ieronymos II amid wider conversation about future of Parthenon marbles held by Britain
Pope Francis has decided to return to Greece three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon that have been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for two centuries.
The Vatican said in a brief statement that the pope was giving them to Archbishop Ieronymos II, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church and Greece’s spiritual leader, as a “donation” and “a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth”.
Continue reading...Chair of the museum, George Osborne, says it no longer wants to be a ‘destination for climate protest’
The future for the British Museum could be very different indeed. That was the message from the organisation’s chair George Osborne in his annual speech to Trustees last month, in which he announced a “complete reimagination” of the museum, under a billion-pound masterplan that will be revealed next year.
Among the hints of potential loans of its exhibits, leading to further speculation over the Parthenon marbles, was one explicit promise on energy. “Our goal is to be a net zero carbon museum,” said Osborne, “no longer a destination for climate protest but instead an example of climate solution”.
Continue reading...No plans to amend legislation that could stop removal back to Greece, after secret talks held over their future
Rishi Sunak has ruled out changing a law that could prevent the British Museum from handing the Parthenon marbles back to Greece, after it emerged that trustees have held secret talks with the Greek prime minister about the future of the artefacts.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said there were no plans to amend legislation under which a museum can dispose of objects within its collection only in very limited circumstances. However, it could decide to lend part of the collection to Greece.
Continue reading...Officials say they have met with George Osborne, and are keen to see the masterpieces back in Athens
Senior Greek officials have been in “preliminary” talks with the British Museum in what could amount to a tectonic shift in resolving the world’s longest-running cultural dispute: the repatriation of the 5th-century BC Parthenon marbles to Athens.
Revelations about the negotiations were first reported on Saturday by Ta Nea, which said that officials including the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had met George Osborne, the chair of the British Museum, in a five-star London hotel as recently as Monday.
Continue reading...16th-century work Epifania is one of only two existing cartoons by the Italian master
One of only two surviving Michelangelo cartoons is undergoing delicate and highly technical conservation work at the British Museum in an attempt to stabilise the fragile work for the coming decades.
Epifania, created by the Italian master artist around 1550, has degraded and been subject to repeated repairs over its almost 500-year history. Now it is laid out in the museum’s state-of-the-art conservation studios as specialists consider how best to preserve the complex structure and black chalk lines.
Continue reading...Brian Eno, Ahdaf Soueif and Miriam Margolyes sign open letter about exhibition opening shortly before Cop27
Campaigners including the musician Brian Eno, the author Ahdaf Soueif and the actor Miriam Margolyes have criticised BP’s sponsorship of an exhibition of Egyptian artefacts at the British Museum.
The exhibition opens shortly before the critical Cop27 climate summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh this November.
Continue reading...Sir Joseph Hotung’s gift is ‘one of the most generous ever received’ by museum
An outstanding collection of Chinese porcelain and jades has been left to the British Museum in “one of the most significant bequests” of its history.
The artworks come from the collections of Sir Joseph Hotung, a businessman, philanthropist and art collector, who died last year.
Continue reading...Horniman museum is first government-funded institution to hand back artefacts looted by British forces in 1897
A London museum is to return 72 treasured artefacts, including its collection of Benin bronzes, to Nigeria in what experts described as an “immensely significant” moment.
The Horniman museum said it would transfer the ownership of the historic objects to the Nigerian government after an unanimous vote by its board of trustees.
Continue reading...Culture Unstained put together submission stating oil company ‘falls short’ in response to climate crisis
A group of climate scientists, archaeologists and those familiar with the museum industry have written to the British Museum’s board of trustees to urge them to sever a sponsorship deal with BP, arguing that it goes against the museum’s own policies and that a renewal would damage its reputation.
The submission, put together by the group Culture Unstained, is part of an escalating campaign against the oil firm’s sponsorship of the museum, which is expected to make a decision about renewing the deal imminently.
Continue reading...Museum is latest institution to distance itself from family accused of profiting from US opioids crisis
The British Museum has become the latest cultural organisation to remove the Sackler family name from galleries and rooms they have supported.
George Osborne, the museum’s chair, announced the move on Twitter, saying: “We’re moving into a new era, presenting our great collection in different ways for new audiences.”
Continue reading...Questions raised over sponsorship of exhibitions by scandal-hit Swiss bank
The National Gallery’s partnership with Credit Suisse has been thrown into question after leaked documents revealed the hidden wealth of the bank’s criminal clients, including drug traffickers, money launderers and corrupt politicians.
Credit Suisse, headquartered in Zurich, has sponsored the National Gallery since 2008 in one of the UK’s biggest arts funding deals. The partnership, renewed in 2020 and due to run until at least 2024, means Credit Suisse’s name is linked to exhibitions for artists from Raphael and Monet to Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
Continue reading...Colourful ceremony marks artefacts’ homecoming more than a century after they were pillaged by British troops
Two Benin bronzes were returned on Saturday to a traditional palace in Nigeria, more than a century after they were pillaged by British troops, raising hopes that thousands more artefacts could finally be returned to their ancestral home.
The artefacts, mostly in Europe, were stolen by explorers and colonisers from the once-mighty Benin Kingdom, now south-western Nigeria, and are among Africa’s most significant heritage objects. They were created as early as the 16th century onwards, according to the British Museum.
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