Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE

Made around the 1st century AD and destroyed at 3:45 p.m. on 7 February 1845, when a drunken visitor to the British Museum smashed it into pieces, the Portland Vase offers an eloquent example of the continual process of renewal and repair that is looking after the building and contents of the oldest national public museum in the world. Its provenance is illustrious, from the Barberini family to Sir William Hamilton (whose collection also came us, with this vase making an important appearance in Susan Sontag’s novel The Volcano Lover) who sold it to the Duchess of Portland. It was then given to Josiah Wedgwood to make his influential version, whereafter it was placed on loan to the British Museum. We acquired it in 1945, in a gesture of hope just as London and the world was piecing itself back together after WWII. Since then, it has been painstakingly restored again twice and now should hopefully be good for a century. It’s an empty vessel but in a way contains the whole history and ethos of the British Museum. It’s a miracle it survived and that it is in a museum at all. I was asked by @thetimes to write about an object @britishmuseum along with others and this is my choice (out today and link in bio). #portlandvase #roman #glass #cameo #britishmuseum

‘If people don’t like Marxism, they should blame the British Museum.’ Mikhail Gorbachev during his visit to the Round Reading Room @britishmuseum in 1984, reflecting on the fact that this is where Lenin and Marx studied (the latter every day for 40 years while he was writing his magnum opus ‘Das Kapital’). And also Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Sylvia Pankhurst, Mahatma Ghandi, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Dickens… #britishmuseum #library

‘I want a poor student to have the same means of indulging his learned curiosity, of following his rational pursuits, of consulting the same authorities, of fathoming the most intricate inquiry as the richest man in the kingdom, as far as books go, and I contend that the Government is bound to give him the most liberal and unlimited assistance in this respect.’ I so agree with my radical predecessor (literally - he had to leave Italy in 1822 to avoid arrest as a revolutionary and then ran the British Museum) Sir Antonio Panizzi, arguing here in 1836 for his egalitarian idea that would become the awe-inspiring Round Reading Room @britishmuseum which reopens to the public on Monday 1 July after more than a decade of closure. I was just told that my desk was his desk, and then opened the drawers to find his handwritten labels still inside, which definitely gives you a connection to your predecessor’s remarkable and commendable ambitions from two centuries ago and a resolve to deliver them. #britishmuseum #roundreadingroom #antoniopanizzi

Vendelmen: @mattiasvendelmans @wardvendelmans 📷 @annesophieschrauwen #mattiasvendelmans #wardvendelmans

New role who dis? 😎 We took a few minutes to catch up with our new Director, @nicholascullinan , to talk about the Museum, his summer reading list, and Crocs 🐊 #ThisOrThat

‘I am an Englishman, because in that country I found protection and encouragement.’ Johann Zoffany, born in Bavaria, when asked about his nationality by the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II. And here his painting ‘Charles Townley and Friends in His Library at Park Street, Westminster’ from 1782, on loan from @towneleyhall to @sothebys as part of the commendable exhibition in partnership with @artukdotorg ‘London: An Artistic Crossroads’ which borrows 12 works from institutions across the UK to demonstrate that this country has always been international. So, yes to London (and the Townley collection depicted here, which was acquired @britishmuseum in 1805) and also yes to Towneley Hall in Burnley, close to where I grew up and where I would visit to see this painting on public display as a boy. #zoffany #towneleyhall #britishmuseum #artuk #sothebys

The Meroë Head from 27BC-25BC, made after Augustus defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the battle of Actium in 31BC, and included in the fascinating exhibition ‘Legion: Life in the Roman army’ @britishmuseum which closes this Sunday. #augustus #britishmuseum #legion #antiquity #sculpture #bronze

Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: ‘Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens’ @nationalportraitgallery is an enthralling exhibition. Congratulations to Dr Charlotte Bolland and my former colleagues on a fantastic achievement. Here a detail of Anne of Cleves by Bartholomaeus Bruyn the elder (1493–1555) from @stjohnsox #anneofcleves #bartholomaeusbruyn #tudor #sixlives @sixthemusical #nationalportraitgallery #portrait

To be ‘as useful as possible, as well towards satisfying the desire of the curious, as for the improvement, knowledge and information of all persons’. Isn’t Sir Hans Sloane’s radical statement of intent from 1749 for the embryonic, encyclopaedic project that would become the British Museum - the first public national museum in the world - extraordinary? And I’m definitely curious: about what delivering that pioneering idea three centuries later, now in a global and digital age, could and should look like, how useful that could be and how ‘all persons’ will be made to mean exactly that: all persons? And here the equally wonderful work, part of the founding collection of Sloane, by Maria Sibylla Merian, ‘Passionflower, with its fruit, with pupae, caterpillars and two flies’ from her ‘Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensis’ of 1705 which was conceived as a beautiful and desirable book that would appeal, as she explained in her preface, to both ‘lovers of art’ and ‘lovers of insects’. @britishmuseum #britishmuseum #hanssloane #mariasibyllamerian

Congratulations Dame Tracey Emin! A lot has happened in the 20 years I’ve known you, but two constants have always been your greatness and fearlessness as an artist and your kindness and loyalty as a friend to so many. You really deserve this. ❤️ 📷 @wellerharry @traceyeminstudio #traceyemin

Such an amazing morning back @nationalportraitgallery with the judges of @artfund Museum of the Year 2024 along with my wonderful former colleagues. It was moving and inspiring to review the hugely positive impact we’ve had working in partnership with communities across the UK, including this workshop with the incredible @ageukcamden ❤️ This is what true transformation is all about. #nationalportraitgallery #artfund #museumoftheyear2024 #ageukcamden

This beautiful and important book on Korean ceramics by my wonderful colleagues @janeportal and @mckillop.beth has just been published, spanning the celadons of the Goryeo and porcelains of the Joseon dynasties from the tenth century all the way to today. As @edmunddewaal says: ‘This is the book on Korean ceramics we have been waiting for. It is engaging and it is magisterial. And I love it.’ @reaktionbooks #korea #ceramics #porcelain #celadon