The British Museum is to prioritise the refurbishment of its dilapidated Greek and Assyrian galleries as a part of its ongoing Rosetta Challenge, an bold plan to modernise its infrastructure and redisplay its whole collections. A masterplan for the revamp was agreed by trustees final month.
A museum spokesperson declined to say when the renovation of the Greek and Assyrian galleries is anticipated to start and finish, what its projected value is and, crucially, the place the Parthenon Marbles will go whereas the work is underway.
Radical overhaul
The chairman of the British Museum’s board of trustees, the UK’s former chancellor George Osborne, is now trying to boost a staggering £1bn to finance the Rosetta Challenge, making it the costliest museum revamp in British historical past.
Though the complete museum will likely be overhauled, no space of the constructing requires consideration extra urgently than its Western block, the oldest a part of the museum, which homes Greek and Roman artwork, Assyrian sculptures, and a part of the Egyptian assortment.
Its shoddy circumstances have fuelled requires the everlasting return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens for show within the state-of-the-art Acropolis Museum, which opened in 2009.
A number of galleries on this a part of the museum have closed to the general public repeatedly in recent times due to leaky roofs and crumbling infrastructure. Followers to extend air circulation have been positioned all through the Western block for the final 12 months.
On 28 October, all of the Assyrian galleries have been closed to the general public. A museum worker advised The Artwork Newspaper that “they’re hardly ever open” Picture: © Cristina Ruiz
On a go to final November, we discovered that one Assyrian antiquity was lined in plastic to guard it from water dripping from above and we additionally famous that the Parthenon sculptures had remained off view for a complete 12 months, first due to the pandemic, after which, due to a leaking roof in an adjoining gallery.
At a gathering of trustees the next month, the choice was taken to prioritise the revamp of the Greek and Assyrian galleries. “Following a full dialogue, the board agreed that the Western galleries ought to be the precedence for the following section of the Rosetta venture,” based on the minutes of the December 2021 assembly. Three weeks in the past the trustees agreed a grasp plan, the small print of which will likely be introduced in Spring 2023.
Overhauling the Western galleries will almost certainly result in their closure for a number of years; all artistic endeavors will must be moved to storage, displayed elsewhere within the museum or despatched on mortgage to different establishments. This will assist clarify conciliatory statements made lately by museum chair George Osborne on the subject of displaying the Parthenon Marbles in Greece. On 14 June, Osborne stated in a radio interview that “there was a deal to be finished” over sharing the Parthenon Marbles with Greece.
A British Museum spokesperson declined to verify whether or not trustees are actually searching for to rearrange a mortgage of the fifth-century BC sculptures to Athens whereas renovation work is underway on the Greek galleries in London. Nevertheless, in an essential speech on the British Museum’s trustees annual dinner final evening, Osborne addressed the restitution situation head on: there will likely be no dismantling of the museum’s collections “as a result of we imagine in a museum of widespread humanity”, he stated. However sustaining the established order, he added, was not adequate both: “There are partnerships we will strike. In case you are prepared to search out widespread floor with us, we are going to positive widespread floor with you.”
However there may be little widespread floor so far as the Parthenon marbles are involved. The Greeks have stated repeatedly that they’d reject a mortgage of the sculptures and have referred to as as a substitute for the everlasting return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens.
Assyrian fiasco
Though the destiny of the Parthenon Marbles is among the most politically-charged debates confronting British Museum trustees, an arguably extra pressing problem is fixing the show of the museum’s excellent assortment of Assyrian antiquities that’s presently housed in shamefully run-down galleries with cracked tiles, leaking roofs, and antiquated infrastructure.
On 14 October, the gallery displaying sculptures from town and palace of Khorsabad, constructed for the Assyrian king Sargon II (721-705 BC), was closed to the general public and in full darkness Picture: © Cristina Ruiz
The gathering has hardly ever been accessible to the general public in its entirety in recent times. Each time The Artwork Newspaper has visited within the final three years, now we have discovered a number of of the Assyrian galleries closed.
Most lately, we visited the Western block on 14 October and, then once more, on 28 October. On each events, a number of of the Assyrian galleries have been closed to the general public. A museum worker engaged on the data desk advised us that “these galleries are hardly ever all open” however couldn’t say why.
When requested by The Artwork Newspaper when all of the Assyrian galleries have been final open repeatedly for a complete month, the museum didn’t reply.
