Category Archives: Museums

An ugly year for the Louvre: where does the world’s biggest museum go from here?

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After a heist and the departure of its boss, the French institution wrestles with water leaks, strikes and much-criticised plans for a €1bn renovation

Just over a year ago, Laurence des Cars, the intellectually brilliant (if famously prickly) former head of the largest and most-visited museum in the world, wrote a somewhat alarming note to her boss, France’s culture minister.

Des Cars, who on Tuesday resigned as president of the Louvre, lamented the advanced state of disrepair of the iconic museum’s buildings and galleries.

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‘A living, moving exhibition’: Ukraine Museum opens in Berlin air-raid bunker

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Exhibits pay homage to Ukrainians’ resilience and bring home the reality that war is going on in Europe

Descending into the windowless basement of a second world war air-raid bunker built for civilians in central Berlin is arguably an eerie enough evocation of what it means to endure life in a conflict.

But in a modern twist, before they have even walked into the first room of the city’s new Ukraine Museum inside the bunker, visitors are “targeted” by a Russian drone just before its operator prepares to release the lethal shot, and see themselves in the firing line on the screen of the weapon’s camera.

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‘A living, moving exhibition’: Ukraine Museum opens in Berlin air-raid bunker

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Exhibits pay homage to Ukrainians’ resilience and bring home the reality that war is going on in Europe

Descending into the windowless basement of a second world war air-raid bunker built for civilians in central Berlin is arguably an eerie enough evocation of what it means to endure life in a conflict.

But in a modern twist, before they have even walked into the first room of the city’s new Ukraine Museum inside the bunker, visitors are “targeted” by a Russian drone just before its operator prepares to release the lethal shot, and see themselves in the firing line on the screen of the weapon’s camera.

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Louvre president resigns as jewellery heist inquiry reveals ‘systemic failures’

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Laurence des Cars steps down days after parliamentary inquiry called Paris museum a ‘state within a state’

The president of the Louvre in Paris has resigned, four months after a gang of thieves broke into the museum’s Apollo gallery and made off with €88m (£76m) of Napoleonic jewellery in France’s most dramatic heist in decades.

Laurence des Cars, who had offered to step down in the immediate aftermath of the burglary, tendered her resignation to Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday in what the French president called “an act of responsibility”, the Elysée Palace said.

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Royal Artillery under fire after denying access to looted Asante treasure

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‘Extraordinary’ golden lamb’s head pillaged in 1874 from what is now Ghana remains hidden in officers’ mess

The Royal Artillery is facing criticism after it emerged they are refusing public access to an “extraordinary object” looted by the British army in the 19th century from the Asante people in modern-day Ghana.

The glistening golden ram’s head would seemingly be worthy of any museum, but it remains hidden within the regiment’s mess at Larkhill in Wiltshire.

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Madrid museum shuffles its pack charting decades of rapid change in Spain

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Reina Sofía’s three-year rehang of works by artists from Spain and beyond is billed as a ‘critical reinterpretation’

The Reina Sofía’s new rehang opens, quite pointedly, with a painting of a detained man sitting, head bowed and wrists shackled, as he waits for the arbitrary hand of institutional bureaucracy to decide his fate.

The picture, Document No …, was painted by Juan Genovés in 1975, the year Francisco Franco died and Spain began its transition to democracy after four decades of dictatorship. Genovés’s faceless, everyman victim of the Franco regime’s control and repression is the natural starting point for the Madrid museum’s exploration of the past 50 years of contemporary art in Spain.

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British Museum removes word ‘Palestine’ from some displays

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Museum revises labelling on maps and panels, saying term used inaccurately and no longer historically neutral

The British Museum has removed the word “Palestine” from some of its displays, saying the term was used inaccurately and is no longer historically neutral.

Maps and information panels in the museum’s ancient Middle East galleries had referred to the eastern Mediterranean coast as Palestine, with some people described as being “of Palestinian descent”.

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British Museum ends ‘deeply troubling’ sponsorship from Japanese tobacco firm

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Critics of deal welcome move, which has been called for since 2016 when experts said it was morally unacceptable

The British Museum has ended a controversial sponsorship deal with a Japanese tobacco firm after reports that the government had raised questions about the deal, which some critics said was “deeply troubling”.

The Guardian understands that the museum’s board chose to not renew the 15-year partnership with Japan Tobacco International (JTI), which ended in September.

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Spanish Armada-era astrolabe returns to Scilly after mysterious global journey

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Navigation aid from 16th century was on seabed for centuries before being bought and sold in US and Australia

It spent hundreds of years languishing on the seabed off the Isles of Scilly in the far south-west of Britain before being hauled back to the surface by divers and setting off a circumnavigation of the world.

Finally the Pednathise Head astrolabe – a rare example of a 16th-century navigational instrument once used by sailors to determine latitude – is back on Scilly after being rediscovered on the other side of the Atlantic.

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Rare bronze and iron age log boats reveal details of Cambridgeshire prehistory

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Well-preserved oak and maple boats used for transport and fishing to be displayed in Peterborough

After lying undisturbed in mud for more than 3,000 years, three rare bronze and iron age log boats have emerged to offer fresh insights into prehistoric life.

The boats were among nine discovered in a Cambridgeshire quarry 13 years ago – the largest group of prehistoric boats found in the same UK site. Most were well preserved, with one still able to float despite its long incarceration.

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Protesters target major new Nigerian museum embroiled in looted artefacts row

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Protest at Mowaa comes amid dispute over ownership of Benin bronzes looted by British colonial forces

Protesters have disrupted a preview event at a major new museum in the Nigerian city of Benin that has become embroiled in a row over the restitution of artefacts looted by British colonial forces.

The demonstrators asserted that the opening of the Museum of West African Art (Mowaa) is a violation of Benin City’s cultural heritage, which falls under the authority of its traditional ruler, the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II.

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Groundbreaking British Museum show set to challenge samurai myths

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Exclusive: Exhibition will reveal complex reality, featuring women and artistic creations, beyond armour-clad warriors

A groundbreaking samurai exhibition that promises to challenge “everything we think we know about Japan’s warrior elite” spanning a millennium of myth and reality is to open at the British Museum next year.

Titled Samurai, the blockbuster exhibition will reveal a world beyond armour-clad warriors and epic duels, as popularised by the noble, katana-wielding heroes of Akira Kurosawa’s classic action films and PlayStation’s hit video games.

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Louvre heist a ‘deafening wake-up call’, says auditor

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Report says Paris museum prioritised ‘visible and attractive’ projects over security in run-up to robbery

The spectacular theft of an estimated €88m (£77m) of crown jewels from the Louvre last month was “a deafening wake-up call” for the “wholly inadequate pace” of security upgrades at the Paris museum, the head of France’s state auditor has said.

Presenting the report, which was completed before the dramatic heist at the world’s most-visited museum, Pierre Moscovici said the Louvre had sufficient funds for the improvements and “must now implement them without fail”.

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Louvre jewel heist by petty criminals, not organised professionals, says Paris prosecutor

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Laure Beccuau said ‘upper echelons of organised crime’ unlikely to be involved as one perpetrator remains at large

The brazen daytime heist at the Louvre was carried out by petty criminals rather than professionals from the world of organised crime, the Paris prosecutor has said, describing two of the suspects as a couple with children.

The assertion comes two weeks after thieves parked a stolen truck outside the world’s most-visited museum, used a furniture lift to reach the first floor, then smashed their way into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms. Less than seven minutes later, they escaped on scooters with crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m).

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Two more suspects charged over Louvre heist taking total to four

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Woman, 38, and man, 37, had been arrested on Wednesday in relation to theft of £76m worth of jewellery in Paris

Two more suspects, a man and a woman arrested this week over the jewel heist at the Louvre, have been charged and remanded in custody, prosecutors have said.

The charges on Saturday brought to four the number of people now charged over the spectacular robbery.

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Egypt’s vast $1bn museum to open in Cairo after two-decade build

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Grand Egyptian Museum next to pyramids of Giza billed as world’s largest archaeological facility for single civilisation

A vast $1bn museum billed as the world’s largest archaeological facility dedicated to a single civilisation will open outside Cairo on Saturday, after countless delays over the course of its two-decade construction.

The Grand Egyptian Museum, located a mile away from the pyramids of Giza, covers an area of 470,000 sq metres. The complex was announced in 1992 but it was not until 2005 that construction began. Some areas of the museum opened in a soft launch in 2024.

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Five new suspects arrested in connection with Louvre robbery

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Public prosecutor says arrests were made in and around Paris but suspects ‘did not help us find the stolen goods’

Five new suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre robbery in Paris, in which thieves stole crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m), the city’s public prosecutor has said, but the gems remain missing.

Laure Beccuau told RTL radio on Thursday the arrests had been made on Wednesday night in the French capital and the surrounding area, particularly the neighbouring Seine-Saint-Denis department. But they “did not help us find the stolen goods”, she added.

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Prosecutor has ‘small hope’ of recovering Louvre jewels thanks to gear left by thieves

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French investigators are analysing DNA samples and fingerprints on tools and other items found on the scene

French investigators are analysing more than 150 DNA samples, fingerprints and other traces from tools and safety gear left by the thieves who broke into the Louvre museum and escaped with crown jewels worth an estimated €88m (£76m).

Five days after the brazen heist from the world’s most-visited museum, Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said she had “a small hope” the jewels could still be recovered and was “optimistic” about the investigation’s outcome.

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Louvre thieves’ slow-motion getaway using furniture lift was caught on video

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Footage showing two men appears to have been filmed from nearby window in museum

The slow-motion getaway of two thieves from the Louvre clutching €88m (£76m) of France’s crown jewels was captured on video, it has emerged – the latest dramatic twist to the country’s most spectacular heist in decades.

The 36-second clip, which Le Parisien newspaper said it had verified, shows two men dressed in black, one wearing a yellow hi-vis vest and the other a motorcycle helmet, slowly descending on a furniture lift from the museum’s Apollo gallery.

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Louvre director acknowledges ‘terrible failure’ after €88m jewel heist

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Laurence des Cars questioned by senators about daring daytime break-in at Paris museum

The director of the Louvre museum in Paris has acknowledged a “terrible failure” days after thieves took seven minutes to break in via a window and steal jewels worth €88m, admitting there was “highly insufficient” security camera coverage of the outside walls of the vast building.

Senators questioned Laurence des Cars about the spectacular heist in which four men used a truck with extendable ladder and furniture hoist to access a balcony, cut through a window and steal jewels from the ornate Apollo gallery during opening hours.

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