Crisis-Hit British Museum Names Interim Director

Almost three weeks after the British Museum was plunged into disaster by the revelation of thefts from its storerooms, the London establishment mentioned it could come below new management.

On Saturday night time, the museum mentioned in a news launch that Mark Jones, a former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, was to change into its interim director, topic to British authorities approval.

George Osborne, the British Museum’s chairman, mentioned within the launch that Jones was “one of the most experienced and respected museum leaders in the world, and he will offer the leadership and grip the museum needs right now.”

“His priorities are to accelerate the cataloging of the collection, improve security, and reinforce pride in the curatorial mission of the museum,” Osborne mentioned.

Jones, 72, who didn’t didn’t remark within the news launch, replaces Hartwig Fischer, a German artwork historian who resigned on Aug. 25 — 9 days after the museum introduced {that a} employee had stolen “gems of semiprecious stones and glass,” some 1000’s of years previous, from its shops.

A number of days after these thefts had been introduced, The New York Times and the BBC printed emails that confirmed Fischer had dismissed warnings from an artwork seller a couple of thief among the many museum’s employees. In 2021, the seller contacted museum directors with what he mentioned was proof {that a} senior curator had tried to promote objects from the gathering on eBay.

A number of weeks earlier than the scandal broke, Fischer introduced he was would go away the British Museum in 2024, and the museum started trying to find a substitute. That search will proceed below Jones’s interim management.

Jones will arrive to an overflowing in tray. In current weeks, a number of international governments together with Greece and Nigeria have renewed claims for artifacts within the British Museum’s assortment. The museum can also be set to announce a serious refurbishment mission for which Jones must oversee a fund-raising drive.

The new chief just isn’t a stranger to such challenges. During his time main the Victoria and Albert Museum, from 2001 to 2011, Jones reintroduced free admission and oversaw a serious refurbishment of the galleries. He additionally handled the fallout from a number of thefts. In three incidents in 2004, thieves stole eight Italian Renaissance bronze plaquettes from the museum; 15 Meissen porcelain figures value almost $4,000 every; and $100,000 value of Chinese jade. After these incidents, the museum tightened its safety, together with by changing previous show instances and putting in improved surveillance cameras and alarm methods.

Jones reduce his tooth as a museum administrator on the British Museum, the place he was a curator for cash and medals from for 1974 to 1992. Shortly earlier than he left to run the National Museums of Scotland, he oversaw the acclaimed exhibition “Fake? The Art of Deception,” which included counterfeit objects that the British Museum had been duped into buying.

One of probably the most high-profile points that any British Museum director should grapple with is the way forward for the Parthenon Marbles, generally generally known as the Elgin Marbles, a set of sculptures and frieze fragments that when embellished the Parthenon, in Athens. In 2002, Jones supported a marketing campaign to share the artifacts between Britain and Greece. “It can be good to display objects at different places,” he advised The Observer, a British newspaper, on the time.

Since November 2021, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece and Osborne, the British Museum chair, have been holding talks over a possible deal that will see a few of the sculptures journey from London to Athens on a long-term mortgage.