Is the British Museum's attempt to save a Tudor-era pendant with links to Henry VIII proof that the institution is on the up?

In December 2019, a metal detectorist in Warwickshire made an astonishing discovery: a gold and enamel heart-shaped pendant, probably dating from 1518, that bears the monograms of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon. In October, the British Museum launched an appeal to raise the purchase price of £3.5 million by the deadline of April 2026.

Athena hears that the response from both funding bodies and the public has already been gratifyingly generous. If this treasure is acquired, it will be a triumph for the museum. The pendant’s authenticity and significance were confirmed by the research of its curators and technical staff and its determination to acquire an item of extraordinary historical, as well as artistic, significance is a welcome sign of energy and optimism in an institution that has shown little of either in recent years.

For a decade, the museum’s senior management seemed inert in the face of criticism and scandal. It made little effort to push back against grossly exaggerated claims that the collection was in essence colonial loot and, although it acknowledged that the building was seriously neglected, did not make public the details or timetable for the masterplan that would provide the drastic overhaul it needs. Then, in 2023, wavering public support for the museum was threatened by the scandal of thefts from the collection by one of its curators.

Much credit for bringing calm to this situation is due to Sir Mark Jones, a former director of the V&A Museum, who ran the Russell Square museum for six months before the installation of a new permanent director, Nicholas Cullinan, in June 2024. Dr Cullinan has not let Sir Mark’s patient work go to waste. In particular, he has at last got its masterplan off the ground with the announcement in February of an architect — Lina Ghotmeh — for the refurbishment (or ‘reimagining’) of the galleries for ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, Rome, Assyria and the Middle East.

The cost will be enormous — the overhaul of the entire museum seems likely to cost about £1 billion. Dr Cullinan has shown himself ready to make tough financial decisions. To allow the work to start, he (and the museum’s trustees) has accepted £50 million from BP, in the teeth of criticism that it should not take money from a company implicated in climate change, albeit at the same time ending sponsorship from Japan Tobacco International, which supported tours for blind and partially sighted visitors.

In the light of the sums needed, the £2.5 million raised by the much-publicised Pink Ball in October won’t go far, but the event showed that the museum can generate positive headlines, a feat it is likely to repeat with the display of the Bayeux Tapestry next autumn. If by then the Tudor pendant is safe in its care, it will be a further sign that the fortunes of this great institution are at last turning.