Tag Archives: british museum

Link Between Benin Bronzes and Slave Trade Snarls Transfers to Nigeria

Posted on: February 15, 2023 by Stephanie Drawdy

What connection exists between the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Benin Bronzes? This is the query that now entangles the seemingly straightforward return of Benin Bronzes to their original home of modern-day Edo State in southern Nigeria. The person raising this compelling point, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, filed a class action suit and moved for emergency action in late […]

Latest issue of our journal Art Antiquity and Law available now

Posted on: November 26, 2022 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

The latest issue of Art Antiquity and Law has now been published and hard copies are being sent to subscribers and members, with the digital version available online to subscribers who have chosen this option. This issue contains a thought-provoking piece by Alexander Herman in which he points out that the recent Charities Act 2022 […]

The recent rise of the virtual museum experience

Posted on: April 21, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn

As discussed in two previous IAL blog posts (here and here), the current outbreak of Coronavirus has had a substantial impact on the art world. One of the more positive sides to the story is how the present restrictions in movement have encouraged museums and galleries to scale up their presence online, giving individuals the […]

Alexander Herman interviewed by The Art Newspaper about continuing developments in the Parthenon Marbles debate

Posted on: March 3, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn

Alexander Herman, IAL’s Assistant Director, was interviewed last month by The Art Newspaper for its weekly podcast to address the ongoing debate over ‘Who owns the Parthenon Marbles?’. In the interview, Alex discusses the recently leaked draft EU document which has raised speculation over whether the marbles could be drawn into deliberations about the future […]

Recent IAL training: British Museum, Oxford and Qatar

Posted on: October 29, 2019 by Alexander Herman

The past month has been a busy one at the IAL. Not only did we run our annual Diploma in Law and Collections Management in London and a Saturday Study Forum, but we also provided a series of in-house training sessions in the UK and Qatar. We began developing these sessions over the last year […]

The Royal Shakespeare Company severed its ties with British Petroleum

Posted on: October 18, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

As London is once more taken over by climate change protests, a recent news story from the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) serves as yet another (very timely) reminder that the arts and cultural sector can no longer remain isolated from the climate change debate, as we have previously discussed here. Just days before Extinction Rebellion’s […]

Action on climate change: the voices of protest and the cultural sector’s response

Posted on: August 15, 2019 by Emily Gould

The ever-increasing volume of the call for urgent action on climate change is unlikely to have passed many readers by over recent months. From school strikes to mass demonstrations, the rise to fame of young climate activist Greta Thunberg and the ongoing ‘war on plastics’, the topic rarely fails to make headline news. It is […]

Meet our Alumni: Chris Sutherns, Sales Executive at Tate Images

Posted on: July 15, 2019 by Kiri Cragin Folwell

Chris Sutherns, Sales Executive at Tate Images participated in our Diploma in Intellectual Property and Collections. Read about his background working with the V&A, British Museum and Tate as well as how the IAL course helped open doors for his career.  Can you tell us a little bit about your career and background? I’m a […]

British Museum must recognise its own powers

Posted on: June 4, 2019 by Alexander Herman

The following commentary first appeared on The Art Newspaper website on 29 May 2019. The British Museum seems to enjoy telling the world about its statutory restrictions. Whenever would-be claimants approach the museum seeking restitution of an object from the collection, the almost mechanical response from the museum is that its trustees are prevented from doing so, […]

Culture as a unifier: the Ethiopian manuscripts

Posted on: February 9, 2018 by Alexander Herman

The story begins 150 years ago. In 1868, deep in the deserts of east Africa, a British expedition led by General Robert Napier, was attacking the capital of the Abyssinian Empire, Maqdala, ruled over by King Tewodros. The British were looking to teach Tewodros a lesson for having imprisoned a number of British envoys and […]