The new British Museum director has vowed not to add politically correct labels to exhibits at the institution to not ‘conform’ to any political agenda.
Dr Nicholas Cullinan took the new position after leaving the National Portrait Gallery in March last year.
The 46-year-old art historian and curator said he is rethinking the way collections will be displayed but this is to make sure the ‘scholarship is up to date, not conforming to a particular sort of political agenda.’
It comes amid pressure on the museum to repatriate artefacts that some say were stolen from other countries, and other institutions have warned visitors that the items they are viewing have colonial links.
Dr Nicholas Cullinan took the new position after leaving the National Portrait Gallery
Kate Middleton and Dr Cullinan speak at the 2019 Portrait Gala at the National Portrait Gallery
During his time at the National Portrait Gallery, Dr Cullinan became embroiled in a row over fossil fuel funding and in 2022 oversaw it cutting ties with BP.
The director emphasised that more people see the British Museum’s objects in exhibitions on tour than in the museum itself, according to The Telegraph.
Dr Cullinan was curator of international modern art at Tate Modern from 2007 to 2013 and takes over from interim director, Sir Mark Jones.
In May, it emerged that The British Museum could repatriate more contested artefacts from around the world following the return of treasures to Ghana.
Experts said legislation which bans the museum from giving artefacts away permanently would not prohibit loans to other countries, like the landmark deal over the return of Asante gold to Ghana.
Museum trustee Chris Gosden said the British Museum Act 1963 was not an ‘impediment’ to other loan arrangements in the future.
Edward Enninful and Dr Nicholas Cullinan attend The National Portrait Gallery’s Portrait Gala on March 19, 2024
But a similar deal over the Elgin Marbles remains problematic as it would require Greece to accept the British Museum as the legal owner of the sculptures, which it has always rejected.
The sculptures, taken from the Parthenon in Athens, are the most controversial exhibit at the London institution and a source of diplomatic tension between Britain and Greece, which maintains they were stolen by Lord Elgin.
But experts suggested other cultural artefacts could be repatriated to their original countries if their national governments were willing to accept loan deals.
It comes after the Tate Modern put a trigger warning on a puppet show saying that visitors may be offended as it features ‘dead bodies’.
The film by Egyptian artist Wael Shawky shows marionettes ‘acting out historical events’.
But bosses at the London attraction felt compelled to add warnings at the film’s entrance – even though it only includes puppets.
According to the gallery’s biography, Wael, who was born in 1971, ‘tackles notions of national, religious and artistic identity through film, performance and storytelling’.
His piece Cabaret Crusades: The Horror Show Files was created in 2010 and is on display in Tate Modern’s Artist and Society section.
The film reconstructs events that took place between 1095 and 1099, in the first of the Crusades.
These military campaigns were initiated and supported by Roman Catholic Church leaders against the Islamic rulers and inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The new British Museum director has vowed not to add politically correct labels to exhibits
Art lovers looking forward to viewing paintings by Turner and Reynolds at an exhibition were also told they could be upset by racist imagery – after the Royal Academy slapped a trigger warning on it.
Woke curators are notifying visitors to Entangled Pasts, 1768-now: Art, Colonialism and Change that it ‘will contain themes of slavery and racism, and historical racial language and imagery’.
Lubaina Himid, a contemporary artist whose work is also featured, said some of the paintings were ‘difficult’. But she also said the show was a ‘huge, rich, layered filling in of gaps’ in how black people had contributed to Britain.
In March, The Victoria and Albert Museum was facing calls for it to be stripped of its public funding after naming Margaret Thatcher in a list of ‘unpopular public figures’ alongside Hitler and Osama bin Laden.
Britain’s first female prime minister is described as a ‘contemporary villain’ in a current display on British humour through the ages.
This appears under a set of Victorian Punch and Judy puppets with a caption headed: ‘That’s the way to do it?’
The words state: ‘Over the years, the evil character in this seaside puppet show has shifted from the Devil to unpopular public figures including Adolf Hitler, Margaret Thatcher and Osama bin Laden, to offer contemporary villains.’
A puppet of Baroness Thatcher from the satirical television show Spitting Image is also included in the comedy exhibition at the London museum whose director is former Labour MP Tristram Hunt.
According to 2022-2023 figures, the museum received most of its income, more than £67million, from the taxpayer via the Department of Culture.
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