The British Museum is to send a series of high-profile exhibitions to Spain from next year until 2020 at “la Caixa” foundation venues. Although loan fees are not normally disclosed, the Spanish bank’s foundation is expected to pay the UK museum around €2m.
On 1 September it was announced that four shows on historic civilisations are being organised, each at between three and five venues run by “la Caixa” Banking Foundation (making a total of 16 presentations). These are in Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Madrid, Palma, Seville, Tarragona and Zaragoza. The foundation is the world’s third largest charity, disbursing around €500m a year, of which a fifth goes to culture and science.
The exhibitions will be jointly curated by the British Museum and “la Caixa”, comprising objects just from the London museum. They will be items both currently in the permanent displays and from the stores. Loans from the displays include a sculpted head of Ramses VI from his sarcophagus in the Valley of the Kings (around BC 1140).
The first show, due to open in October 2016, will be on “Medieval Europe: Power and Legacy”, covering the period 400-1500. Among the loans will be one of the Lewis Chessmen (1150-1200). After being presented at the CaixaForum Madrid it will go on to the foundation’s venues in Barcelona and Zaragoza in 2017.
The next exhibition is to be on “Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors and Heroes” (2017-19), which will represent one of the largest selections of Greek artefacts ever lent by the British Museum. This will be followed by “Pharaohs: Kings of Egypt” (2018-20). Although a final decision has not been made, the last show will probably be on the Phoenicians (2019-20).
Altogether around 700 objects are expected to be lent to Spain by the British Museum. This is likely to be the most ambitious series of touring exhibitions to a single country mounted by the museum since its establishment in 1753.
