Nicholas Callinan, current director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, has been appointed to the post of director of the British Museum, according to today’s announcement. Cullinan takes this position after the scandal with the theft of artifacts.
It is recalled that the British Museum announced in August that a member of its staff was fired after it was found that various items, which included jewelry and precious stones dating from the 15th century BC. by the 19th century AD, they had been removed from storage.
The previous director, German Hartwig Fischer, the museum’s first non-British director, resigned at the end of August 2023 after the thefts were revealed.
Since then, former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) Mark Jones has been acting director.
Who is Nicholas Callinan?
Nicholas Kaliman, 46, takes over after the unanimous approval of museum trustees and the agreement of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Head of the National Portrait Gallery since 2015, he has carried out a complete overhaul of the museum’s collections, whose space open to the public has been increased by a fifth, according to the announcement of his appointment.
An art historian, he was a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Tate Modern in London. He will take up his duties at the British Museum in the summer.
Nicholas Callinan spoke of the “honour” represented by directing “one of the world’s greatest museums”.
He spoke of “a new chapter” that will include the most important architectural and intellectual transformations taking place in every museum in the world, so that the British Museum continues to be as engaged and collaborative as possible.”
The British Museum, founded in 1753, houses a collection of eight million objects including the Rosetta Column and the Parthenon Sculptures.
The museum, which is free to visit, is the UK’s biggest tourist attraction, with 5.8 million visitors in 2023, a 42% increase on the previous year, according to the Association of Museums.
The revelation of the large-scale theft scandal led to the dismissal of an employee, who was arrested by the police without any prosecution to date.
After the theft was revealed, the British Museum said it had recovered just over 350 objects.
The new head of the museum will also have to implement a major renovation, estimated to cost more than a billion euros, made necessary by the poor condition of some rooms.
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