Opinion
Lessons on disposal from the US
It was with considerable sadness that I watched Northampton Borough Council consign the Sekhemka Egyptian statue, an extraordinary work of art, to an auction house for sale. The fact that part of the proceeds of the £15.8m sale will be ringfenced to pay for museum programmes and development is neither here nor there. Works of …
Taking risks is a risky business
The question of risk, at least as it applies to the arts, is particularly challenging at the moment. Most artists and arts organisations thrive on a degree of risk, but austere times can generate a climate of caution. As public funding declines, our financial controllers are more anxious than ever about the bottom line, and …
Museums must be more than repositories of Treasure
It is no exaggeration to say that the introduction of the Treasure Act in 1996 and the creation of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) have had a transformative effect on how the sector interacts with what is designated as ‘treasure’ and our related archaeological collections. Not only the number of objects being recorded and acquired, …