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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/07/neil-macgregor-british-museum-director-germany
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| British Museum director Neil MacGregor must be saved for the nation | British Museum director Neil MacGregor must be saved for the nation |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| As Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, conducts David Cameron and Angela Merkel around the exhibition Germany: Memories of a Nation, the prime minister ought to consider keeping him close: German officials are making no secret of the fact that he would be a highly desirable candidate to run the Humboldt Forum, a new centre for art and culture in Berlinthat opens in 2019. | As Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, conducts David Cameron and Angela Merkel around the exhibition Germany: Memories of a Nation, the prime minister ought to consider keeping him close: German officials are making no secret of the fact that he would be a highly desirable candidate to run the Humboldt Forum, a new centre for art and culture in Berlinthat opens in 2019. |
| MacGregor – whose Germany exhibition and the recent Radio 4 broadcasts on which it was based could be read as an extended love letter to the federal republic, if not an actual job application – is reaching the end of his expected tenure at the BM. The German chancellor and her culture minister, Monika Grütters, though not directly in charge of appointing the director of the forum, are fans of MacGregor. | MacGregor – whose Germany exhibition and the recent Radio 4 broadcasts on which it was based could be read as an extended love letter to the federal republic, if not an actual job application – is reaching the end of his expected tenure at the BM. The German chancellor and her culture minister, Monika Grütters, though not directly in charge of appointing the director of the forum, are fans of MacGregor. |
| In Britain there are legal safeguards in place to protect items of high cultural interest from being removed from these shores. Objects so protected need to meet at least one of what are called, in splendidly Sir Humphreyesque language, the Waverley Criteria. Which are: is the item so closely connected with our history and national life that its departure would be a misfortune? Is it of outstanding aesthetic importance? Is it of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history? | In Britain there are legal safeguards in place to protect items of high cultural interest from being removed from these shores. Objects so protected need to meet at least one of what are called, in splendidly Sir Humphreyesque language, the Waverley Criteria. Which are: is the item so closely connected with our history and national life that its departure would be a misfortune? Is it of outstanding aesthetic importance? Is it of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history? |
| These criteria have hitherto been applied solely to things. But arguably it is time for a human exportstop. MacGregor may not in himself be of precisely outstanding aesthetic importance (the criterion known in the trade as Waverley Two), although one could surely make a case for his voice (Glasgow-tinged, highly articulate, passionate, beloved of the listeners of Radio 4). But Waverley One and Waverley Three? Tick and double tick. | |
| No learned committee could deny that he is so closely intertwined with our national life that his departure would be a misfortune. His presence – via his custodianship of the British Museum, his BBC broadcasts, his books and his general aura of humane and learned good-eggery – are of outstanding significance for the nation’s knowledge and appreciation of the world’s material culture and history. | No learned committee could deny that he is so closely intertwined with our national life that his departure would be a misfortune. His presence – via his custodianship of the British Museum, his BBC broadcasts, his books and his general aura of humane and learned good-eggery – are of outstanding significance for the nation’s knowledge and appreciation of the world’s material culture and history. |
| Frankly, it is rather a shame that he does not fall under the Treasure Act (to do so he would have to be over 300 years old and be composed of more than 10% gold or silver). Then, he could legally be declared a national treaure. | Frankly, it is rather a shame that he does not fall under the Treasure Act (to do so he would have to be over 300 years old and be composed of more than 10% gold or silver). Then, he could legally be declared a national treaure. |
| In all seriousness, however: freedom of movement and cultural cross-pollination are crucial principles. A German, Martin Roth, runs the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Belgian-born Chris Dercon is director of Tate Modern. A Swiss, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, is the co-director of the Serpentine Gallery. American-born Nicholas Cullinan, lately of the Metropolitan Museum New York, has this week been appointed director of London’s National Portrait Gallery. Such people enrich the nation beyond calculation. | In all seriousness, however: freedom of movement and cultural cross-pollination are crucial principles. A German, Martin Roth, runs the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Belgian-born Chris Dercon is director of Tate Modern. A Swiss, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, is the co-director of the Serpentine Gallery. American-born Nicholas Cullinan, lately of the Metropolitan Museum New York, has this week been appointed director of London’s National Portrait Gallery. Such people enrich the nation beyond calculation. |
| In turn, our exports are many: Cullinan’s boss, Thomas B Campbell, the director of the Met, is British born. To Berlin we have ceded the conductor Simon Rattle, the artists Tacita Dean, Susan Philipsz and Douglas Gordon, architect David Chipperfield, and many more. | In turn, our exports are many: Cullinan’s boss, Thomas B Campbell, the director of the Met, is British born. To Berlin we have ceded the conductor Simon Rattle, the artists Tacita Dean, Susan Philipsz and Douglas Gordon, architect David Chipperfield, and many more. |
| But can we really, as a nation, afford to export MacGregor? More than any other Briton, he has articulated so many important ideas: no one else has so strongly affirmed the notion that our cultural institutions – especially our free national museums – are places in which the citizenry may gather as equals to understand our differences, to seek enlightenment about the historical forces that have formed us, and to grasp Britain’s interconnectedness with the world. | But can we really, as a nation, afford to export MacGregor? More than any other Briton, he has articulated so many important ideas: no one else has so strongly affirmed the notion that our cultural institutions – especially our free national museums – are places in which the citizenry may gather as equals to understand our differences, to seek enlightenment about the historical forces that have formed us, and to grasp Britain’s interconnectedness with the world. |
| There is a deep humanity and a proper seriousness in the way MacGregor has led the British Museum and, before that the National Gallery. There is nothing straightforwardly populist in MacGregor’s way of doing things – instead there is a kind of intellectual generosity that reaches far beyond the institution but does not patronise. Such qualities are rare. | There is a deep humanity and a proper seriousness in the way MacGregor has led the British Museum and, before that the National Gallery. There is nothing straightforwardly populist in MacGregor’s way of doing things – instead there is a kind of intellectual generosity that reaches far beyond the institution but does not patronise. Such qualities are rare. |
| Rumour has long had it that were Britain to build a concert hall worthy of Rattle, he might consider a return to Britain – perhaps to the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra. No such incentive has yet been proferred. | Rumour has long had it that were Britain to build a concert hall worthy of Rattle, he might consider a return to Britain – perhaps to the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra. No such incentive has yet been proferred. |
| What would keep MacGregor in Britain? What would be big enough? Could a political role – after a career of careful political neutrality – be created for him? Maybe in the end what is so attractive about Germany to Britain’s cultural exports is not just the superior funding but the seriousness with which culture is viewed by politicians, and the quality of conversation and debate in the polity at large. Cameron, we look to you. And we must look to ourselves. | What would keep MacGregor in Britain? What would be big enough? Could a political role – after a career of careful political neutrality – be created for him? Maybe in the end what is so attractive about Germany to Britain’s cultural exports is not just the superior funding but the seriousness with which culture is viewed by politicians, and the quality of conversation and debate in the polity at large. Cameron, we look to you. And we must look to ourselves. |