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Job cuts at the Museum of London 'will cripple its vital academic work'
Dalya Alberge12 Apr 2011
The Museum of London (MoL) is planning to axe curators and conservators from its staff amid accusations that academic expertise no longer counts for anything.
Up to 17 posts have been targeted, sparking outrage from eminent scholars. John Clark, a leading medievalist and former senior curator, now retired, has written to the MoL director, Professor Jack Lohman, protesting at proposals that will "cripple" curatorial work.
He is so alarmed by the cuts that he is considering resigning his honorary title of Curator Emeritus, MoL. In his letter, he told Professor Lohman: "If the proposals for the future of curatorial posts… go ahead, I feel I shall have very little option other than to resign the role of Curator Emeritus for the hollow sham it is."
Another scholar, Martin Biddle, Emeritus Professor of medieval archaeology at Oxford University, has also written to the director, warning that such cuts within a museum of national and international importance were "a dereliction of duty".
The MoL, opened by the Queen in 1976, boasts some 7m objects, including spectacular Jacobean jewellery, the UK's largest collection of Neolithic axes and Roman marbles.
The cuts are being implemented to save £1m, according to insiders. One source said: "Can it be coincidental that the budget for the latest gallery, Modern London, overran by a cool £1m? Why don't directors ever take responsibility?"
One source said: "There are no reductions or threats at the top level." He questioned whether the administrators have cut their salaries, and why the MoL is unable to raise funds from the City: "They are surrounded by banks."
In his letter to the MoL director, Professor Biddle warned: "Reduction in the number of senior curators will have a… potentially irreversible impact... risking serious damage to the Museum's reputation…To carry out such a reduction when London is about to play host to the 2012 Olympics and to a vast concourse of visitors from all over the world is inexplicable."
An MoL spokesman said that the museum needs to find "around £1m in savings" following cuts to its 2011/12 grant from its major funding partners, including the City of London: "These cuts are significant and challenging. Making this level of cuts will involve redundancies."
He questioned whether the job losses would be as high as 17, but acknowledged that negotiations continue.
Reader views (2)
To cut any curators from a museum of this standing would be truly shocking and unforgivable. These are people who have dedicated their working lives to furthering the understanding of London's past, surely they should be considered a vital fixture in the Museum of London. What have the directors done to improve people's knowledge of the city's history, or to even justify the loss curators while not taking any kind of cut in pay themselves?
- Concerned, London, 12/04/2011 22:15
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Seventeen Curators !! What are they doing in a working day.?
- Davey_Buoy, Chertsey, 12/04/2011 18:44
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