🟦 The huge success of V&A East Storehouse means it's a likely frontrunner to lift the Art Fund Museum of the Year trophy for 2026 🏆
But my money is on the Cambridge's Fitzwilliam or Plymouth's The Box clinching the title. Here's why — plus the full lowdown on the world's biggest museum prize ⤵️
🟦 NEWS 🚨 | The V&A censored catalogues after demands by a Chinese printer
In a Guardian exclusive, it's revealed the museum deleted maps and images deemed sensitive by Beijing censors from publications
🟦 NEWS 🚨 | The British Museum has announced a new exhibition of 110 Netherlandish drawings from the 15th and 16th centuries
The show will present the findings of the first major research into this rare collection in nearly a century
🟦 NEWS 🚨 | The British Museum has announced a new exhibition of 110 Netherlandish drawings from the 15th and 16th centuries
The show will present the findings of the first major research into this rare collection in nearly a century
🟦 NEWS 🚨 | Ancient treasures stolen from a Dutch museum last year have been RECOVERED
The appalling heist of a 2,500-year-old golden helmet and other items considered some of Romania's greatest treasures shocked the museum world. It's remarkable that they've now been recovered mostly intact
🟦 PSA: Following the weekend, an update to my list 📝
The TLDR of my own argument is that I don't think the sums for charging foreign visitors add up, especially across all 15 DCMS funded institutions
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🟦 Thrilled that my Substack newsletter gets a mention today by @stephenkb.bsky.social in his own excellent Inside Politics newsletter for the FT
It's on why a tourist tax is a better way to fund national museums than charging international visitors
(£) www.ft.com/content/2cba...
thank you so much! lots to consider (and I hope the government do consider it all)
Will tourists want to/be able to afford more than one or two museum visits on a trip? BM and Tate M are and will remain first and second choices. Soane and Wallace Collection (both nationals) usually pick up third, fourth choice visits. If no longer free, will people have enough means to visit?
Will National Museums Liverpool need to charge all tourists. If not, why not. If so, what does that do to tourist levels and attractiveness of Liverpool for tourism? Isn't the government hoping to increase access out of London?
Imperial War Museums already charge everyone to some of their sites. Two of their admission-charging venues continue to hugely lag pre-pandemic levels of visits — Churchill War Rooms is 13% down, and HMS Belfast is 37% down. Don't think they're awash with cash and all problems solved due to fees...
The proportion of international visitors to Science Museum is 29%. To the National Railway Museum its 8%. Both are in the Science Museum Group.
So will sums work for both? Will Science Museum tourist fees need to subsidise its other sites with fewer foreign visitors? The BM don't need to worry!
Agree a tourist levy is the better solution. Agree Hunt is always a wise voice
The debate on this needs to not just focus on the BM, National G and V&A. They will make the sums work for sure (although entry charges will mean grant in aid cuts)
But do the sums add up for the other nationals?
well and to your other point, it will absolutely see the Grant In Aid cut, if not straight away over the short to medium term. That's what the Treasury wants
The government's response this morning I think very much is not committing to the museums getting to keep the money themselves! "to support access to arts everywhere" does not sound like "to support paying the bills to the building your about to walk into"!
ah brill. huge congrats!
🟦 BREAKING NEWS 🚨 | the Natural History Museum breaks the record for the most annual visits for a museum in UK history
7.1m people visited in 2025, seeing it become Britain’s most visited attraction for the first time
🟦 NEWS 🚨| David Hockney returns to Tate Britain for a 90th birthday retrospective in 2027...
...AND he'll take over Tate Modern's Turbine Hall too!
💫 A Thomas Gainsborough show marking the 300th anniversary of the artist’s birth, at Tate Britain
💫 Tate’s first major presentation of the art of the Tudors in 30 years, also to Tate Britain
💫 A career-spanning solo exhibition by Chila Kumari Singh Burman which will open the new Tate Liverpool
These are two major highlights of Tate's 2027 exhibition programme announced today
There'll also be:
💫 An exhibition of Edvard Munch, looking at his paintings through the lens of cinema at Tate Modern
💫 Tate Modern’s first ever exhibition devoted to Claude Monet
🟦 BREAKING NEWS 🚨 | A major David Hockney retrospective will open at Tate Britain in 2027 to mark the artist's 90th birthday
The birthday festivities will also see Hockney take over Tate Modern's Turbine Hall with a brand new multi-media installation celebrating his work in opera
🟦 Here’s this week’s 3 biggest museum and art stories ⤵️
🚨 Two jeweled treasures stolen in a Paris museum raid are back on display in London
🚨 “Misleading” rain icons on weather apps are costing Britain’s museums
🚨 The EU will axe its funding to the Venice Biennale if Russia return to the event
oh. safe to say i would not have predicted that being the answer!
what does the 37 mean?
your memoir is gonna be 🔥
🟦 Farewell to a £50m portrait 👋
Sir Joshua Reynolds’ 1776 work Portrait of Mai is soon to head to Los Angeles to spend a number of years in the USA 🇺🇸
Its swan song display has just opened at the Box in Plymouth — here I speak to its Director about its farewell exhibit
🟦 Oulu is the European Capital of Culture 2026
To mark the occasion, in my new interview I speak to the CEO of Oulu2026 to find out why Finland is putting art and climate in the spotlight in this year-long celebration
🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
🟦 BREAKING NEWS 🚨 | A new painting by Rembrandt has been discovered
Researchers at the Rijksmuseum have confirmed that the painting Vision of Zacharias in the Temple (1633) was made by Rembrandt
It will go on public display on Wednesday
