The greatest art gallery

The Uffizi Gallery tops today's list in 'The Times', although is it really the greatest art gallery in the world?

Perhaps it is interesting to speculate - but I am not really inclined towards pumping any money in the direction of Mr Murdoch to find out his staff's opinion on the matter

Good morning, once again, to you all! This weekend, 'The Times' picks the world's fifty best museums. Rachel Campbell-Johnston introduces Chinese armies, Viking ships, Egyptian jewels — and Elvis’s gold Cadillac: an expert guide to the wonders of the world:





The Times - The world’s 50 best museums

Anyway, for the record, here are The Times's top three museums from around the world:

a. Smithsonian Institution



Smithsonian

b. British Museum



British Museum

c. Acropolis Museum



Acropolis Museum

Other London museums include the Sir John Soane's Museum (#4), the Imperial War Museum (#6) and the V&A (#9). Which is your favourite museum, Neil McGowan?

Writing in 'FT Weekend', Griselda Murray Brown reports on the global art-goer: from the popularity of Old Masters in Tokyo to graphic art in Rio, global art-going is changing.



There’s a scene in the cult coming-of-age comedy Ferris Bueller’s 'Day Off' (1986), in which the truanting Ferris and his friends visit the Art Institute of Chicago. It’s the middle of a school day and the place is all but empty. Pollock, Picasso, Henry Moore, Monet, Modigliani: they’re all there in wide open galleries. As the scene ends, one of the group becomes entranced by Georges Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”, gazing with increasing intensity at the small girl in the middle of the scene until all he can see are dots of colour.

This kind of intense, almost private experience in the airy emptiness of a museum is one that is increasingly unfamiliar to today’s art lovers. As the Art Newspaper’s recently published figures for museum attendance in 2012 reveal, the world’s galleries are getting ever busier. Griselda concludes thus:



For the record, here are the top 3 most popular exhibitions in 2012:



A. Masterpieces from the Mauritshuis - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum - Tokyo

B. The Amazon: Cycles of Modernity - Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil - Rio de Janeiro (free entry)

C. Nineteenth-century Italian Painting - State Hermitage Museum - St Petersburg

Finally, here are the top 3 most popular museums in 2012:

1. Louvre, Paris - 9,720,260 visitors

2. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - 6,115,881 visitors

3. British Museum, London - 5,575,946 visitors (free entry)

So the British Museum appears to be free, good and popular! Any thoughts?

As a fellow Londoner, I would add that I, too, like all three of these smaller and more intimate museums, Parva Porcus. In geographical terms, the Geffrye is closest to kleines c, and the restaurant is particularly good!



Geffrye - Restaurant

If you cannot make it for afternoon tea in person, how about a little pride and prejudice instead?

Pride and Prejudice 200

Here in 'The Third', we are celebrating the bicentenary of 'Pride and Prejudice', revealing the hidden world behind one of the greatest love stories of all time by restaging a regency ball at Chawton House, the grand estate of Jane Austen's brother.

Jane Austen's House Museum

Like kleines c, Jane Austen loved to dance, and balls were hugely popular in nineteenth century England. Crucially, a ball is also where Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy meet and begin their courtship. However, very little is known about what they were actually like. What sort of music would they have danced to? How difficult were the steps? What were the clothes like to wear? And what did the food taste like?

BBC News - Party like it’s 1813

This film uses music from the Austen family archives, as well as dances and dishes mentioned in her novels and letters to recreate the experience of attending an early nineteenth century country ball - the sort of event that Austen had in mind when she wrote some of the most famous and powerful scenes in English literature.

BBC Two (television) - Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball

I propose some toast: to pride, prejudice and having a ball! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (whatever you are drinking)!

Good morning, Neil! I trust that everyone enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend. This morning, the weather has turned cold and wet again in London, despite the late spring sunshine over the weekend. Upon reflection, I do not ultimately think that the British Museum is the greatest museum in the world, although it probably does have the best Director. Neil MacGregor has been Director of the British Museum since August 2002 and has devoted particular attention to developing the Museum’s regional and international partnerships.



Neil MacGregor sits on the Board of the National Theatre and the International Advisory Board of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. In both his current and his previous role as Director of the National Gallery, Neil worked closely with BBC radio and television to bring the collections to the widest possible public.

Most recently, the British Museum and the BBC worked together on two projects telling the story of Shakespeare's Restless World, and previously, A History of the World in 100 objects. At the heart of this landmark project was the British Museum/BBC Radio 4 series of a hundred 15-minute episodes, based on objects from the British Museum’s collection. This has been a platform for partnerships with museums across the UK and a wide programme of activity.

British Museum - A History of the World in 100 objects



BBC Radio 4 - Shakespeare's Restless World

Neil read French and German at New College, Oxford, and studied philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. He took an LLB in Law at the University of Edinburgh and was called to the Scottish Bar. He then decided to study 17th- and 19th-century art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and for six years was a lecturer in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Reading and a part-time lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art. In 1981 he became Editor of the arts periodical, The Burlington Magazine, and then in 1987 became Director of the National Gallery.

British Museum - Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum

Writing in the FT, Peter Aspden argues that the amount of coverage granted to football is dismaying, when compared with that given to other artistic, scientific and cultural events. I am guessing that the retirements of Sir Nicholas Serota and Neil MacGregor, transformers of our cultural life over the past decade, from Tate and the British Museum respectively, will receive a tiny fraction of the attention paid to the boorish Sir Alex. The withdrawal from professional life of our most gifted performers will prompt specks of media interest next to the gush devoted to the banal and overpraised Beckham. Peter argues thus:



FT - A league above

Sydney, Neil and 'The Third' therefore belong to a league above. I propose some toast: to all of you! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (Tuesday morning breakfast coffee)!

Would it not be an improvement were the Great Court and the entire ground floor to be filled with pot-plants ferns and an entire indoor forest?

Had Angus Wilson still been there he would have known what to do would he not?

Yes that is the sort of thing I had in mind; except that I would want to see far more foliage, only native British plants, tall trees, creepers everywhere and far fewer paved paths.

Thanks for the sensitive and stylish poem, and welcome to the forum!