Museums and heritage

York Museums Trust (YMT) has revealed it lost £400,000 in revenue because one of its sites was closed for three months following the discovery of reinforced autoclaved concrete (RAAC).

The Castle Museum, housed in the former York County Gaol, was shut between September and December while undergoing remedial works to deal with RAAC from a roof installed in the 1980s.

In a report due to be presented to councillors on 9 April, Kathryn Blacker, Chief Executive of York Museums Trust, said that despite reopening on 8 December, the museum suffered losses over the Christmas period as it was not able to fully market its intended programme of events.

Blacker added: "We had to drop our prices in this period, and we had much lower visitor numbers, which impacted our retail and catering on-site".

The closure cost York Museums Trust around £400,000 in addition to the £80,0000 paid from its reserves to cover the remedial works. 

“Unfortunately, we have still not been able to reopen the upper half of the female prison because of the need to mitigate remaining RAAC issues," Blacker wrote.

Predicting a drop in visitor numbers from 2023 to 2024, Blacker continued: “We remain loss-making given our reliance on visitor income and trading through our Enterprise subsidiary for 70% our funding."

She said the organisation has £0.8m in its reserves, amounting to less than two months of operating costs.

YMT currently receives an annual grant of £300,000 from City of York Council, which Blacker notes was reduced from £600k in 2015-16 and £1.1m in 2014-15. 

The organisation hopes to secure a £5m grant from Arts Council England's Museum Estate and Development Fund in 2024-25 to help with re-roofing costs and recoup losses.

The British Museum is suing a former curator of Greek and Roman Art, alleging that they stole or damaged more than 2,000, mainly unregistered, artefacts from its collection. 

The museum’s lawyer, Daniel Burgess, said Higgs, who was fired in 2023, “abused his position of trust” and took the items, including ancient gems and gold jewellery, over a 10-year period, according to the Associated Press.

Burgess alleged that Higgs tried to conceal his activities by using fake names and documents, manipulating museum records and undervaluing items when he resold them.

Higgs, who has not yet been charged in a separate ongoing police investigation, denies the allegations. He did not attend a hearing on March 26 because of poor health, but Associated Press reports that he intends to dispute the British Museum’s claim.

The museum has said 351 stolen items have been returned, with 300 further missing items identified.

Orders from High Court judge Heather Williams require Higgs to list or return any items from the museum still in his possession within four weeks and to disclose his records from eBay and PayPal.

The theft of around 1,500 Greek and Roman objects by a British Museum employee between 1993 and 2022 first emerged in August 2023, causing considerable reputational damage to the organisation and resulting in the resignations of Director Hartwig Fischer and Deputy Director Jonathan Williams.

An independent review into thefts has made a series of recommendations to the museum on risk management, auditing, governance and security, as well as introducing a comprehensive register of all eight million items in its collections.

English Heritage is trialling the use of visible body-worn cameras on its staff at four locations in an attempt to discourage antisocial behaviour and crime.

Used at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, Tilbury Fort in Essex, Kenwood House in north London and Marble Hill in south London, English Heritage says that footage is being recorded "on the basis of our legitimate interest in deterring and detecting crime".

"Experience of these cameras has shown that they are useful at helping defuse confrontational situations and provide a reliable version of events, which can help us to clarify any dispute or serve as evidence in the event it is believed a crime has been committed."

The move follows the recent publication of research commissioned by Historic England and the National Police Chiefs' Council that examined heritage and cultural property crime in England.

The report highlighted problems, including the theft of historic lead and stone, burglaries targeting cultural objects, unlawful metal detecting, and the removal of artefacts from protected wreck sites. It also found issues with antisocial behaviour, including arson, vandalism, and graffiti, recommending a "more effective prevention and active enforcement of heritage crime".
 

The Fitzwilliam Museum’s five main painting galleries will reopen entirely on Friday (15 March).

The galleries at the Cambridge-based museum have been closed for a major refurbishment and redisplay project.

Built between 1837 and 1843, the galleries, located in the Fitzwilliam’s original Founder’s Building, have been equipped with better lighting, new silk wall coverings and new glass in the ceiling domes.

The refurbished space will feature over 190 works of art dating from the 1600s to the present day and from across Europe. The museum says each of the five galleries will be focused around a theme that brings the historic, modern and contemporary together.

“This redisplay juxtaposes historic and contemporary works to offer a narrative that links past and present,” said the museum’s Director, Luke Syson. 

“We can do this so well because of the depth and range of our magnificent collection and because of some exceptional new acquisitions. Many of our most famous works of art now take their place alongside more unfamiliar pieces in a rich array that deliberately leaves space for a range of responses and asks us all to think anew.”

The refurbishment and redisplay has been supported by the Albert Reckitt Charitable Trust and the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.

A garden in front of Tate Britain to integrate art with nature will open in 2026, it has been announced.

Museums and Heritage Advisor reports that the gallery is working on the garden project in collaboration with landscape design practice Tom Stuart-Smith Studio and architects Feilden Fowles.

The project, dubbed the Clore Garden, after its backing by the Clore Duffield Foundation, has also received advice and guidance from horticultural experts at the Royal Horticultural Society.

Tom Stuart-Smith, who has previously created gardens for Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, said: "Since this area was last redesigned, the world has changed and we all feel that public spaces in the heart of our cities need to work harder. 

"Mown lawns and clipped hedges are hard pressed to do this on their own. We hope to make Tate Britain a haven for wildlife, and bring beauty, complexity and joy into this garden in the heart of London.”

Two climate activists have been arrested following alleged vandalism at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow.

Climate activist group This is Rigged said protesters staged a demonstration on 3 March to raise awareness about rising food insecurity in the UK. They are calling on the Scottish Government to implement a community food hub for every 500 households in Scotland.

In footage posted on social media, protesters were seen pouring porridge and jam on a bust of Queen Victoria and graffitiing its plinth.

In a statement, the group said: "We refuse to be dragged back to the Victorian era. Diseases such as rickets, which once haunted Victorian slums, are now on a sharp rise in Scotland, with 356 diagnoses in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area last year."

Police Scotland said officers were called to the attraction in Glasgow's West End at about 11:55 on Sunday and that two women, aged 23 and 30, were charged following the incident involving a Queen Victoria bust.

They were released to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court at a later date.