UK government issues Museums Action Plan 2018

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

UK government issues Museums Action Plan 2018 | In response to the Mendoza Review, an independent review by Neil Mendoza published in November 2017, which outlined how the government could support the museum sector in the UK, the government has now issued the Museums Action Plan 2018. The document presents research on how the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, and other bodies such as the Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and Historic England can work better together, while also considering how funding should be used and distributed more effectively.

Controversy over billboard advertising on Sydney Opera House | Protests were sparked on Monday after the sails of the Sydney Opera House, a UNESCO World Heritage site, were illuminated with graphics promoting the Everest Cup, an Australian horse race. According to the BBC, the opera house initially rejected the promotional graphics, but state politicians overruled the decision. Now the National Trust of New South Wales is discussing whether the advertising projections were illegal, while a representative from UNESCO has also declared they are also looking into the case.

Titian painting damaged after falling in Spanish monastery | The Art Newspaper reports that a 16th-century Titian painting has been taken into conservation after falling from the wall of the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, 35 miles northwest of Madrid, Spain. The lower part of the painting, which depicts the Crucifixion, suffered from significant tearing after falling from the walls of the Sacristy, an area not accessible to the public. Museum representatives have released a statement saying that the fall was due to loose wall fastenings and the painting is now at the Royal Palace of Madrid to be conserved by specialists from the Museo del Prado.

Activists stage protest at American Museum of Natural History | Coinciding with Columbus Day in the United States yesterday, some 1,000 activists attended an ’Anti-Colombus Day’ tour organised by the Decolonize This Place coalition at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Hyperallergic reports that demonstrators issued a number of requests in advance of the protest, including for an equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt located outside the museum to be removed.