There’s a Child in There! A Family Breaks an 800-Year-Old Coffin in a Failed Museum Photo Op

A couple wanted a picture of their child inside an ancient sarcophagus. That’s when things went wrong.

On a recent visit to Prittlewell Priory Museum in Southend, Essex, a couple placed a child over an exhibit barrier and inside an ancient sandstone coffin in the hopes of snapping a morbid photo. As a result, part of the sarcophagus—which was already in three pieces—fell to the floor, and a chunk of it broke off, according to the BBC.

The family fled the scene without reporting the damage but were caught on the museum’s security camera.

Conservator Claire Reed, who has been charged with restoring the coffin, said the incident was “upsetting” for the museum staff who “strive to protect Southend’s heritage for the benefit of our visitors.”

In a statement, Ann Holland, Southend’s executive councillor for culture, said: “The museum conservator is currently assessing the damage to the coffin and will carry out the repair using materials and techniques suited to the object.” She added that the area around the coffin would be cordoned off but that the affected part of the museum would re-open “as soon as possible.”

The incident follows a spate of visitor mishaps at museums in recent years. In 2014, a visitor to London’s Tate Modern spotted a child lying on a Donald Judd “Stack” sculpture. In February of this year, a selfie-taker smashed a Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture at Washington, DC’s Hirshhorn Museum. In July, a woman damaged $200,000 worth of art while taking a selfie at a Simon Birch exhibition in Los Angeles. And just last week, at the Center of Fine Arts in Brussels, a man stepped into an Yves Klein installation—a bin filled with International Klein Blue-colored sand—leaving a trail of blue footprints throughout the museum.

Source : A Family Breaks an 800-Year-Old Coffin in a Failed Museum Photo Op

Tate Britain brings back labels and rehangs in themes to help audience understand the art

Tate Britain is to rehang its entire collection as it reinstates proper labels explaining what the art is about, it has emerged, as its director says he wants to invite audiences to understand the works properly.

Alex Farquharson, who took over Tate Britain 18 months ago after the surprise departure of Penelope Curtis, said he will be grouping paintings into themes in a bid to improve the audience experience.

Curtis, who departed the gallery for Lisbon in 2015 after five years at the helm, had faced much criticism over her exhibitions, with strident calls for her dismissal described at the time as “verging on a vendetta”.

Her decisions including hanging the Tate Britain collection in chronological order, and overseeing a change in labelling to cut down on information to let visitors interpret more of the art for themselves.

Chris Stevens, curator, explained in 2013: “Your [the audience’s] response is as valid as our knowledge, and this re-hang presents a sort of release for the artist and their work from this encumbrance of academic protocols.” (…)

Lire la suite : Tate Britain brings back labels and rehangs in themes to help audience understand the art

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Est-il encore besoin de se déplacer au musée ?

Les travaux de numérisation des collections des musées de Paris avancent. 185 000 œuvres sont ainsi consultables gratuitement sur un site dédié. Le nouveau site, qui réunit les efforts des différents lieux d’expositions, a été mis en ligne par la ville de Paris le 04 mai 2016. Lentement mais sûrement, l’état d’avancement des mises en ligne est inégal d’un musée à l’autre, puisque 62 % des 310 000 photographies accessibles sont pour l’instant issues d’œuvres d’art du musée Carnavalet. (…)

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