The British Museum has altered its labeling of ancient Middle Eastern artifacts, removing references to "Palestine" after critics argued the term was being used inaccurately to describe civilizations that existed centuries before it was coined. The revisions came to light following recent complaints from the advocacy group U.K. Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which argued that describing the ancient southern Levant as "Palestine" risks projecting a modern political identity onto earlier civilizations and obscuring the later emergence of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
In a letter to the museum's director, Nicholas Cullinan, the group wrote: Applying a single name Palestine retrospectively to the entire region, across thousands of years, erases historical changes and creates a false impression of continuity. It also has the compounding effect of erasing the kingdoms of Israel and of Judea, which emerged from around 1,000BC, and of reframing the origins of the Israelites and Jewish people as erroneously stemming from Palestine.
The show, simply titled " Samurai," dives into the myth of the samurai and how it came to be, to teach viewers how this fierce warrior class emerged during the early medieval period in the 1100s and evolved over the next few centuries to become an elite class of bureaucrats. The exhibition also examines portrayals of samurai in modern-day popular culture, and how that compares to reality. Yes, the samurai started out as fierce fighters, but their identity is much more complex than that.
The accompanying catalogue for Hawai' i: a Kingdom Crossing Oceans features more than 150 works, from ancient Hawaiian treasures to important contemporary pieces, telling "a compelling story of movement, allyship and cultural exchange [between the UK and Hawaii]". An inventory of the entire collection of Native Hawaiian works housed at the British Museum, the largest collection outside of Hawaii, is included in the catalogue.
A 14th-century English-made ewer may soon head to Ghana on long-term loan from the British Museum, according to the Art Newspaper. Known as the Asante Ewer, the lidded bronze jug is a rare example of medieval English bronze casting. At some point in its history, the object found its way to Kumasi, capital of the Ashanti (Asante) Kingdom, now Ghana.
The original concept, which looked more like an open-air, plant-filled pavilion, has been hit with a big dose of reality and replaced with a conventional "shed" at the same locations as the existing ones. However, rather than white plastic, the replacement security sheds will be clad in stone and steel, which will be less visible and less of an intrusion into the space.
More than 800 guests attended the £2000-per-ticket event, including the former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the artists Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin, who is a trustee of the museum. Ticket sales for the event raised around £1.6m for the museum's international partnerships, though the final total raised from donations and a silent auction is expected to be much higher.
The first giraffes to arrive in London were not live, but stuffed. The first, a young specimen, came in the 1770s and from the 1810s it was dramatically displayed with two others at the top of the stairs of Montagu House, where the museum was then based. The British Museum then also covered natural history, which was later hived off to a separate institution in South Kensington, which opened in 1881.
For me October has always been one of the most exciting times to be in London. The Frieze art fair draws artists, collectors and curators from around the world, not only to see great art, but to experience London at its best. It reminds me why London is so special: it is a city where different ideas, people and cultures can come together from around the globe to create something truly unique.
The young Hawaiian King ascended to the throne in 1819 at the age of 22. In 1824, his court set sail for London to pay a visit to King George IV, arriving in May of that year. A notable curiosity in London, his entourage attracted a lot of attention as he travelled around, and he included a visit to the British Museum - the first record of Native Hawaiian aliʻi (chiefs and royals) at the Museum. However, while in London, the Hawaiian court had caught measles, to which they had no immunity. Both the King and Queen died from the disease while in London, and were later returned to Hawaiʻi to be buried in their homeland.
Fabrics reflect their origins, but wartime shapes their cultural significance. Afghan war rugs illustrate a blend of tradition and current events, evolving from displacement and conflict.
Many of the objects are rarely lent due to their great age and fragility. They reveal the ability and dexterity of the artisan in materializing ideas.
