The British Museum on Thursday appointed Nicholas Cullinan, an art historian who currently heads the National Portrait Gallery in London, as its new director, ending a troubled period in which the August institute lacked a permanent leader.
Cullinan, 46, will step into the role in the summer, the British Museum said in a press release. He will immediately face a host of challenges, including the fallout from an embarrassing scandal in which the museum says a former curator stole more than 1,800 objects from its storage spaces and then sold many of the items on eBay.
Cullinan will also have to lead an extensive fundraising campaign to pay for a major renovation of the museum. And he will face demands for the return of disputed artifacts to their countries of origin, including the Parthenon sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, and a collection of Benin bronzes.
In the press release, Cullinan said he looks forward to taking the museum “into a new chapter.” Under his leadership, he expected the museum to undergo “significant transformations, both architectural and intellectual,” he added. “I can’t imagine a better challenge or opportunity to build on this than collectively reimagining the British Museum for the widest possible audience,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the British Museum said Cullinan was not available for an interview.
The British Museum has been without a permanent director for seven months since Hartwig Fischer, a German art historian, resigned last August. Fischer’s departure came shortly after The New York Times and the BBC reported that he had downplayed concerns that a curator was stealing objects from the museum. In September, the museum appointed Mark Jones, a former leader of the Victoria and Albert Museum, as Fisher’s interim replacement.
Foreign governments used the theft scandal as an opportunity to renew calls for restitution. Last year, Lina Mendoni, Greece’s culture minister, said the thefts proved that the Parthenon sculptures were no safer in Britain than in Greece. Since November 2021, George Osborne, the chairman of the British Museum, and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece have been in negotiations over a possible deal for the return of some of the sculptures.
Cullinan – seen by museum industry insiders as an energetic leader, capable of overhauling tired institutions – was the favorite for the British Museum job. Last year he reopened the National Portrait Gallery after a critically acclaimed $53 million renovation.
As the British Museum approaches its own renovation, Cullinan’s insight into fundraising will be needed. Among the donors he brought in to pay for the renovation of the National Portrait Gallery was Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born businessman, who gave the museum nearly $13 million.
But fundraising is becoming increasingly difficult for museums as donors’ business practices and investments come under scrutiny. Activists have both praised and criticized Cullinan for the philanthropists he has worked with.
During the renovation of the National Portrait Gallery, artists and activists praised Cullinan after he turned down a $1.3 million donation from one of the Sackler family’s charities – one of the first British institutions to distance itself from the family-related with the opioid crisis.
Environmental groups also welcomed Cullinan’s decision to end a sponsorship deal with BP, the oil company, although last year some of those same activists criticized the National Portrait Gallery after it announced a similar sponsorship deal with Herbert Smith Freehills, a law firm with connections with the oil industry.
In an interview with the Times of London, Cullinan defended that sponsorship deal, saying museums faced an “increasingly challenging” financial environment and would be “harder” to find a bank or law firm that had no connections to the oil industry .
Born in Connecticut but raised in Great Britain, Cullinan studied art history at the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art in London. He then worked as a curator of international modern art at Tate Modern, before spending two years as a curator of modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
At the National Portrait Gallery he collaborated with various American institutions. Last year, the museum reached an innovative deal with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to jointly purchase Joshua Reynolds’ “Portrait of Mai (Omai),” a major work that the National Portrait Gallery could not afford on its own. and shuttle the painting back and forth between the two museums.
Katherine E. Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in an email that Cullinan was an excellent choice for the British Museum. His “impressive experience extends from capital projects to innovative acquisition strategies,” she said. Cullinan, Fleming added, also had “a great attitude” to the challenges ahead and will think creatively about how to ensure the museum remains relevant in a changing world.
When he takes up his new post, Cullinan will become the 23rd director of the British Museum since 1753.