Tag Archives: Museums Association

Museum ethics: when the law plays catch up

Posted on: March 23, 2021 by Alexander Herman

Readers of this blog will know of our interest in a particular piece of EU law that came into effect throughout the EU territory on 28th December 2020. This predated the end of the Brexit Transition Period by three days and so applied to the UK as well, at least initially. The legislation was Regulation […]

Done right, selling museum pieces can work – but probably not with Michelangelos

Posted on: October 1, 2020 by Alexander Herman

This comment first appeared on The Art Newspaper website on 25 September 2020. It has been reproduced with the editorial staff’s kind permission. Is the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) going to sell its Michelangelo? It seems a preposterous proposition, but these are rather preposterous times. The idea, apparently floated by a handful of Royal […]

Everyday Ethics for the Museum Sector

Posted on: April 25, 2016 by Emily Gould

The launch event for the new Museums Code of Ethics took place at the Wellcome Collection last Friday, 22nd April. You would be forgiven for thinking that a Friday afternoon event to explore an ethics code might not be the greatest crowd-puller; but on this occasion, you’d be much mistaken. Almost 150 delegates came to […]

Release of Culture White Paper

Posted on: March 31, 2016 by Emily Gould

The UK Government’s long-awaited Culture White Paper was released last week. It is over 50 years since the sector was last given the limelight in this way, so it was with baited breath that we nervously hit the download button. The message which runs through the paper is certainly positive and upbeat. It talks of […]

Sekhemka in the news again

Posted on: March 8, 2016 by Emily Gould

  There is rarely a dull moment in the long-running saga of the Sekhemka statue, the rare Egyptian Old Kingdom sculpture controversially sold by Northampton Borough Council for £15.76 million in 2014. The piece had been displayed at the Northampton Museum and was sold by the Council to raise funds, incurring the wrath of the […]

New Museum Code of Ethics well-timed for struggling local museums

Posted on: February 17, 2016 by Emily Gould

UK museums now have a revised Code of Ethics to guide them through the ethical dilemmas they encounter on a daily basis. The new Code, which updates the 2007 version, was approved at the Museum Association’s (MA’s) Annual General Meeting last November following an 18 month consultation. The new Code is more succinct than its […]

Recent Developments in Art and Cultural Property Law

Posted on: November 5, 2015 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

A One-Day Conference Saturday, 28 November 2015  9:30 am to 5:00 pm NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY, LONDON CAMPUS 1 SUFFOLK STREET, LONDON  SW1Y 4HX (NEXT TO TRAFALGAR SQUARE)   Including the following presentations: Litigating street art: the story of the Folkestone Banksy and its return from America Tim Maxwell, Partner, Boodle Hatfield LLP Keeping it “street”: the […]

Upcoming conference: Recent Developments in Art and Cultural Property Law

Posted on: October 29, 2015 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

We are happy to announce an upcoming one-day conference to be held in London on 28th November 2015 entitled Recent Developments in Art and Cultural Property Law (pdf flyer here). The conference will cover a number of new and exciting legal trends in the area involving: the new sentencing guidelines for heritage crimes the new Museums Association Code of […]

UK Government extends export ban on Sekhemka statue

Posted on: October 27, 2015 by Alexander Herman

This is a short update on our piece from this summer about the export ban placed on the £15 million Sekhemka statue. While it may have seemed doubtful that a UK entity would be willing (or, more importantly, able) to buy the statue and keep it in the country, there does now appear to be interest in doing so. […]

Will Sekhemka remain in the UK?

Posted on: August 12, 2015 by Alexander Herman

The famous Sekhemka statue is in the news again. This is the Egyptian Old Kingdom sculpture thought to represent a court official that had once been in the possession of Northampton Borough Council and displayed at the Northampton Museum. The statue sold at auction last year for £15.76 million, but not before garnering controversy on a number […]