The Humboldt Forum: under one roof
Over the course of this article, we take a look at a small selection of works on display in the newly opened spaces of Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum and Museum für Asiatische Kunst.
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Archaeology Lectures, Events, and Exhibitions – October 2021
Now that museums and heritage sites around the UK are reopening and in-person events are beginning to be held again, we wanted to highlight some of the ‘real life’ exhibitions, lectures, and activities coming up. However, if you’re still looking for ways to get your archaeology fix at home, Amy Brunskill also has a selection of online museums tours, resources, activities, and more to keep you busy.
Royal Engineers Museum opens ‘momentous’ new study centre
The military museum, based in Gillingham, is the largest of its kind in Kent and contains many exhibitions telling the story of Britain’s military engineers from the Roman period through to the modern Corps of Royal Engineers.
Napoleonic tunic and weapons on display at new exhibition marking emperor’s death
Napoleon in Exile at the Fusilier Museum in Bury tells the story of the military leader’s final years and will include several personal items which have never been on display in the UK before.
Plans of new home for National Museum of the US Navy revealed
Initially commissioned in 2020, the new NMUSN campus will be in the vicinity of the historic Washington Navy Yard, allowing easy access to the public.
The best military history events, lectures, and exhibitions (September 2021)
MHM's round-up of the best military history activities to explore this September, which includes an exhibition featuring 50 portraits of Holocaust survivors, and the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
The Romance of Ruins: curator Louise Stewart of Sir John Soane’s Museum discusses the art of the 1764 Ionian expedition
In a recent issue of Minerva magazine, Louise Stewart, Curator of Exhibitions at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, discussed the young artist William Pars’ poetic images of the ruins he encountered on an expedition to Ionia (in modern-day Turkey)…
Megalithic Malta
There is much we don’t know about the people who lived in Neolithic Malta, but they left their mark on the islands through vast temples and tombs. Luc Amkreutz and Sharon Sultana explore what these impressive structures and the figurines found in them can tell us about a vanished civilisation.
Exhibitions from around the world – August 2021
Due to changing coronavirus measures, the dates listed below may have changed since we went to print, and museums and galleries may close. Check the websites and social-media accounts of the museums for the most up-to-date information and bookings.
Nine historic sites recognised to mark Festival of Britain anniversary
Running from May to September 1951, the Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair promoting British design, science, technology, architecture, industry, and the arts.
IWM to open ‘extensive’ new galleries on the Second World War and Holocaust
The story of the Holocaust will be told through 2,000 photos, books, artworks, and letters, as well as personal objects from toys to jewellery.
This week: Feasts
Britain pulled out the red carpet last weekend, as world leaders arrived in Cornwall for this year's G7 summit. It wasn't the first time in history that power and pleasure have been so mixed, however. Indeed, last week's gathering would have seemed strangely familar to the 6,000 Englishmen and women who 501 years earlier accompanied their king, Henry VIII, as he crossed the Channel to join his French counterpart, Francis I, at the lavish three-week summit-cum-carnival known as the Field for the Cloth of Gold.
This week: Nero
He was enthroned as Roman emperor at just 16. But history has not been kind to Nero's reputation. According to the surviving sources, he was a matricide and a multiple wife-murderer, and he also stands accused of various other horrific crimes and misdemeanours. So does Nero's name really deserve to have become a byword for depravity?
Nero: the people’s princeps?
Roman literature gives us an overwhelmingly negative view of Nero, but was there any good to this matricidal ruler? As a new exhibition on the emperor opens at the British Museum, Minerva's Editor Lucia Marchini speaks to curators Thorsten Opper and Francesca Bologna to find out more about how and why this figure, popular with the people, came to be known as an enemy of the Senate and the state.
Marble skull is lost Bernini masterpiece for Pope Alexander VII, research reveals
For many years, a life-sized, anatomically accurate and skilfully carved skull of white Carrara marble was on display at Schloss Pillnitz, a castle in Germany. Its artist was unknown.
Was Nero really a goodie?
His talents may have been limited and he may have been fundamentally lazy: but was he bad? Could we not say that he made the best use of his limited talents – and the empire flourished?
Shrines to saints and Pink Floyd
Museums and sculptors should work more closely with archaeologists and palaeontologists to recreate the appearance of our extinct ancestors.
Nero’s Britain: rebellion, reconstruction, and a revised reputation
The Roman emperor Nero has long been reviled as a notorious tyrant, prone to lavish and often murderous excesses, who headed a chaotic regime that saw Britain erupt into open insurrection led by the rebel queen Boudica. A new exhibition at the British Museum presents a more nuanced picture, however, and Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts spoke to the curator, Thorsten Opper, to find out more about what Nero’s reign had meant for Roman Britain.
Thomas Becket: troublesome or over-promoted?
In a way, I began to feel slightly more sympathetic to Henry VIII; the church was extremely powerful and if you are to oppose it, I suppose you must be ruthless.
Interview: how the British Museum brought Becket back to life
Bringing together more than 100 objects from museums, churches, and private collections across Europe, 'Thomas Becket: Murder and the making of a saint' powerfully evokes the medieval era as it explores the life, death, and legacy of Henry II’s ‘turbulent priest’.
Military History Events, Lectures, and Exhibitions – May
The best military history events, lectures, and exhibitions in May 2021, including an online course delving into the discovery of King Richard III in a car park, and an exhibit on Disney wartime propaganda.
Disney goes to war
More than 90% of the Disney company’s wartime output was dedicated to assisting in the struggle against Japan, Nazi Germany, and their allies.
Aircraft at RAF museum get a spring clean
The annual high-level cleaning took place at the end of April and was conducted by specialists from ArcoServices. The team also carried out various safety checks on the suspension cables which keep the aircraft in 'flight'.
Exhibition on Nero promises to shed new light on Roman emperor
The British Museum claims it will present Nero, who was also widely admired for popular policies, extravagant games, and building projects, in a balanced light and allow visitors to make up their own minds.
Museum of London sites reopening with extended exhibitions
The Museum of London Docklands has announced the extension of several exhibitions and displays, including their exhibition on London’s largest Bronze Age hoard, ‘Havering Hoard: A Bronze Age Mystery’, which will run until 22 August 2021.
Exhibition on Nero promises to shed new light on Roman emperor
‘Nero: the man behind the myth’ promises to challenge ‘traditional preconceptions’ about the figure.
This week: Ancient Iran
Epic Iran is the appropriately grand title of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s ambitious new exhibition, which explores 5,000 years of Iranian history through 350 objects that represent the country’s art and culture – taking us from the beginnings of civilisation, via the ancient palaces of Persepolis, right up to the present day.
Epic Iran: Persian splendours
A major exhibition delving into 5,000 years of art and design in Iran is set to open in London in May. Lucia Marchini speaks to curator John Curtis for a preview of some of the ancient highlights.
Thomas Becket: Canterbury Tales
In 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket was killed in his cathedral by knights linked to his former friend King Henry II. But how did Becket become a revered saint and protector of the king?
IWM announces reopening dates with #MissingMuseums campaign
The #MissingMuseums campaign invites fans of the institution to use social media to share what they missed about its galleries and exhibitions during the last several months.
Torlonia marbles: An archaeology of a 19th-century antiquities collection
The sculptures making up the Torlonia marbles provide a potent glimpse of life in ancient Rome. But this 19th-century collection is also an artefact in its own right.
Collecting Ancient Europe
This short book in connection with a project at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, looking at its own forgotten ‘Ancient Europe’ collection, which was dispersed in the 1950s.
On Show – Exhibitions from around the world
Details of the latest and most interesting exhibitions.
Nefertari: into the Valley of the Queens
The Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, Nefertari, was buried in one of the most spectacular tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. Well-educated and well-travelled, Nefertari played a crucial part in the political life of the pharaoh, and her importance was reflected through her magnificently decorated tomb. Minerva's Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Casler Price to find out more.
Parthenon, Athens, 1907
Boissonnas headed to Athens and worked to photograph the monuments of the Acropolis, a subject he returned to several times.
Tantra: from ecstasy to enlightenment
Lindsay Fulcher enters the transgressive realm of Tantra. This rebellious Indian cult, which has overturned religious, social, sexual, and political norms from AD 500 to the present day, is currently being celebrated in an exhibition curated by Imma Ramos at the British Museum.