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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Posted on: August 1, 2016 by Alexander Herman
We had earlier this year reported on a claim lodged at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg by an independent Athenian association seeking the return of the Parthenon Marbles. The claim of the Syllogos Ton Athinaion (or ‘Athenians’ Association’) has been rejected by the Court on admissibility grounds. In a short ruling dated 23 June 2016 […]
Posted on: July 15, 2016 by Alexander Herman
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. The title of this post is correct. There is currently a Bill before the UK Parliament to return the Elgin Marbles (aka the Parthenon Marbles) to Greece. It received its first reading in the House of Commons on Monday, 11th July, and is scheduled for a second reading on […]
Posted on: April 15, 2016 by Alexander Herman
Since we last reported on the matter, there have been some (potentially positive) developments on the issue of the Australian Aboriginal bark etchings in the collection of the British Museum being claimed by descendants of the Dja Dja Wurrung people who had initially made them in the mid 19th century. An article by Paul Daley in the Guardian from […]
Posted on: October 22, 2015 by Janet Ulph
A dispute over a highly attractive marble statue sparked headlines in the national press in early September 2015. It had been seized by Customs officers and kept in the British Museum for safekeeping during the legal proceedings. The District Judge, John Zani, had examined the statue there before coming to a decision that it had been […]
Posted on: April 20, 2015 by Alexander Herman
Having highlighted the issue in an earlier post, the criticism of the upcoming British Museum exhibition, Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilization (a purposely ambiguous title?) has become more vociferous with a cutting article published recently in The Guardian provocatively entitled ‘Preservation or plunder? The battle over the British Museum’s Indigenous Australian show’. Past events involving the Dja Dja Wurrung bark etchings are […]
Posted on: April 8, 2015 by Alexander Herman
Today it was announced that British Museum Director Neil MacGregor will step down at the end of 2015. This will come as a shock to most. Certainly since within the last year the heads of two of Britain’s most respectable cultural institutions, the National Gallery (Nicholas Penny) and the National Portrait Gallery (Sandy Nairne), have also […]