Jennifer Scott Appointed New Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery
Press release from Dulwich (as noted by The Guardian, Scott will be the first woman to lead the Gallery). . .
Dulwich Picture Gallery has announced that Jennifer Scott has been appointed to the position of Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, succeeding Ian A. C. Dejardin after his 12-year leadership. Scott will take up her new position in April 2017.
Professor Evelyn Welch MBE, Chair of Trustees at Dulwich, said: “I am delighted to be able to announce Jennifer’s appointment to this important role. Her passion for the Gallery is clear and her achievements at The Holburne Museum and at the Royal Collection are an excellent foundation for joining Dulwich. We look forward to welcoming her on board as we look towards the Gallery’s future ambitions.”
Scott is currently Director of The Holburne Museum, Bath, having joined in August 2014. During this time she has played a significant role in shaping the Museum’s centenary celebrations, with a series of critically acclaimed exhibitions in 2016. In addition, she led a successful £450,000 acquisition campaign with linked community engagement programme, and initiated conservation and research leading to major new attributions of the Museum’s Flemish paintings. Scott has also developed a number of national and international partnerships. Prior to joining The Holburne Museum, she was Curator of Paintings at Royal Collection Trust (2004–14).
Jennifer Scott said: “I am honoured to be appointed as Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery. Through its exceptional collection and pioneering programme, Dulwich has an enduring appeal grounded in its 200-year history. Ian Dejardin’s dynamic leadership has placed the Gallery in a strong position for the future. I look forward to working with Evelyn, the Board and the team to continue to develop the Gallery as the perfect place for people to experience the inspirational potential of art.”
2017 will welcome an exhibition line-up featuring Vanessa Bell, John Singer Sargent, and Tove Jansson. The year will also see the opening of the Gallery’s first pavilion building in June as well as a series of displays celebrating 200 years since the Gallery first opened its doors to the public. Jennifer Scott will be the Gallery’s fourth Director.
CV Highlights
• August 2014–present, Director, The Holburne Museum. Responsible for £1.4m budget, 21 staff (f/t), and 320 volunteers; led successful acquisition campaign for Sir Thomas Lawrence’s Arthur Atherley; recent discoveries of previously overlooked works by Brueghel the Younger and Teniers; achieved significant grants for outreach and community engagement work.
• Curator of Impressionism: Capturing Life (2016) and Bruegel: Defining a Dynasty (2017). Restructured staff, introduced a SMT at Deputy Director level, devised and implemented a 3-year forward plan, managed capital project of new car park / café terrace.
• January 2004–August 2014, Curator of Paintings at Royal Collection Trust. Responsible for curating exhibitions and displays and project management of loans to museums and galleries worldwide. Established academic authority on royal portraiture and British, Flemish, Spanish, and Dutch painting 1450–1900.
• Author of numerous publications including The Royal Portrait: Image and Impact (2010), Dutch Landscapes (2010), and Bruegel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting (2007). Previously worked in the curatorial department of The National Gallery, London and National Museums Liverpool.
• 1998–2002, BA and MA, History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and Fellow Commoner of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge.
2017 Scholar-in-Residence Program, Hillwood Estate in D.C.
Abraham and David Roentgen, Rolltop Desk, 1765–70, wood marquetry, mother-of-pearl, gilt bronze, steel, leather, glass, 46 × 42 × 25 inches (Washington, D.C., Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens).
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2017 Scholar-in-Residence Program
Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, Washington, D.C.
Applications due by 15 February 2017
PhD candidates and other highly qualified scholars conducting research that may benefit from Hillwood’s holdings are encouraged to apply. Applicants should submit a curriculum vitae and a proposal—not to exceed 500 words—stating the necessary length of residence, materials to be used, and the project’s relevance to Hillwood’s collections or exhibition program, including, but not limited to: art and architecture, landscape design, conservation and restoration, archives, library or special collections, as well as broader study areas such as the history of collecting or material culture. The project description should be accompanied by two letters of recommendation. Materials will be reviewed by the selection committee. There are three types of awards:
1 Week
Hillwood will arrange and pay for travel costs to and from the museum; housing near campus; shop and café discounts; free access to all public programs.
2–3 Weeks
Hillwood will arrange and pay for travel costs to and from the museum; shop and café discounts; free access to all public programs; a stipend of up to $1,200 depending on length of stay.
1–2 Months
Hillwood will arrange and pay for travel costs to and from the museum; shop and café discounts; free access to all public programs; a stipend of up to $1,500 per month depending on length of stay.
Founded by Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887–1973), heir to the Post Cereal Company, which later became General Foods, the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens houses over 17,000 works of art. Hillwood is in a special class of cultural heritage institution as a historic site, testament to the life of an important 20th-century figure, an estate campus, magnificent garden, and a museum with world renowned special collections. It includes one of the largest and most important collections of Russian art outside of Russia, comprising pieces from the pre-Petrine to early Soviet periods, an outstanding collection of French and European art, and jewelry, textile, fashion, and accessories collections. Scholars will have access to Hillwood’s art and research collections based on accessibility and staff availability. The Library has over 38,000 volumes including monographs, serials, annotated and early auction catalogues, and electronic resources; the Archives contain the papers of Marjorie Merriweather Post, her staff, and family members. Please submit applications or inquiries to Scholarinresidence@hillwoodmuseum.org by 15 February 2017 (applicants will be notified by 13 March 2017).
Shonibare’s ‘Wind Sculpture VIII’ Installed in D.C.
Yinka Shonibare MBE, Wind Sculpture VII (detail), 2016, steel armature with hand-painted fiberglass resin cast and gold leaf (Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, purchased with funds from Amelia Quist-Ogunlesi and Adebayo Ogunlesi and the Sakana Foundation, 2016-11-1).
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Press release (via Art Daily) from the National Museum of African Art:
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art announced the acquisition and permanent installation of sculpture Wind Sculpture VII by celebrated contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare MBE. Wind Sculpture VII made its Smithsonian debut Saturday, December 3; it has been installed in front of the National Museum of African Art.
A rendering of Shonibare’s sculpture as envisioned outside the National Museum of African Art (James Cohan Gallery).
Part of a series of seven individually designed sculptures, Wind Sculpture VII is the first artwork installed permanently in front of the museum. Constructed from fiberglass, this unique, gold-leaf version of Shonibare’s Wind Sculptures series evokes the sails of ships that have crossed the Atlantic and other oceans, connecting nations through the exchange of ideas, products, and people. In its form, it captures histories that can be inspiring or brutal but always complex. It suggests that the opening of the seas led not only to the slave trade and colonization but also to the dynamic contributions of Africans and African heritage worldwide. Using yellow, blue, rose, and gold, Shonibare celebrates the African men, women, and children who have shaped the United States, Great Britain, and other nations of today and for the future.
“The museum is proud to present this stunning and monumental public sculpture at the museum,” said Karen Milbourne, curator and project lead. “This work of art will transform the façade of our museum and pay tribute to the connections between Africa and America. The patterns emblazoned on this sculpture replicate so-called ‘African print cloth,’ which are in fact based on Indonesian batiks manufactured in the Netherlands and United Kingdom and then exported to West Africa where they have become synonymous with African identity. Shonibare draws on this entangled history to direct attention to the global connections that unite individuals and communities worldwide. Africa’s global connections and the vision of its artists are the focus of this national museum; this sculpture will inspire visitors and spark conversation.”
Facts about Wind Sculpture VII:
• The work weighs 899 pounds
• It took seven people one month to paint and gild the sculpture
• The structure is 20 feet tall and 10 feet, 6 inches wide
• Only about a 7-inch-diameter point of the sculpture touches the ground
Throughout the past decade, Shonibare has become well known for his exploration of colonialism and post-colonialism within the context of globalization. Working in painting, sculpture, photography, film, and performance, Shonibare’s work examines race, class, and the construction of cultural identity. Through sharp political commentary of the interrelationships between Africa and Europe’s economic and political histories and wry citations of Western art history and literature, Shonibare questions the validity of contemporary cultural and national identities.
Shonibare was born in the United Kingdom in 1962 and moved to Lagos, Nigeria, at the age of 3. He returned to London to receive his MFA from Goldsmiths College, a part of the ‘Young British Artists’ generation. He gained notoriety on the international stage via his commission for Okwui Enwezor’s Documenta 10 and was a Turner Prize nominee in 2004. In 2005 he was awarded the decoration of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, a title that he officially added on his professional name. His works were featured in the 52nd Venice Biennale and a major mid-career survey toured 2008–09. In 2011, the artist’s sculpture Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle was selected for Trafalgar Square’s prestigious commission series. Shonibare’s works are included in many prestigious public collections spanning the globe. He currently lives and works in London’s East End.
Brian Sewell Bequeaths a Painting by Lagrenée to the National Gallery
Press release (17 November 2016) from the National Gallery in London:
Louis Jean François Lagrenée, Maternal Affection, 1773, oil on copper, 43.5 × 34.5 cm (London: The National Gallery, gift from the estate of Brian Sewell, 2016).
“As a child, there was not a major museum or art gallery in London I didn’t know, and the National Gallery was my favourite.” –Brian Sewell, interview for The Daily Telegraph (June 2012)
The legendary Evening Standard art critic would often talk about the weekly visits he made to the National Gallery as a child imbuing him with his love of art; indeed, he once quipped, “I’m leaving my body to science, and if there’s anything left, they can burn it, mix the ashes with bird food and scatter them on the steps of the National Gallery” (Mail on Sunday, April 2014). Therefore, it is fitting that a much-loved work from his private art collection will go on display in the National Gallery, presented as a gift to the Gallery following his death in September 2015.
Maternal Affection is a small oil on copper work from 1773 by the French artist Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée. The subject cannot be precisely identified. It takes place in a loggia and shows a woman nursing a child, with another infant held towards her by one of her female companions. Another woman is placing (or removing) bedding in the form of a pillow in or from a wooden crib. In this picture of quiet contentment, Lagrenee has sought balance—balance in the colours of the costumes both of, and between, the individual figures and balance in composition. Maternal Affection is highly typical of the small-scale paintings that the artist made for private collectors.
There are currently eleven paintings by Lagrenée in Great Britain: seven at Stourhead (National Trust) and four at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. Maternal Affection is, therefore, the only one by the artist on public display in a national collection. Eighteenth-century French paintings are sparsely represented in Trafalgar Square, and this generous gift helps to extend the National Gallery’s collection in this area. Maternal Affection also adds to our understanding of the reception of 17th-century Bolognese painting in 18th-century Europe: Lagrenée’s style was greatly influenced by his admiration of the great Bolognese painters of the previous century, in particular the work of Guido Reni.
Christopher Riopelle, National Gallery Curator of Post-1800 Paintings said: “The painting is a beautifully preserved oil on copper of exquisite refinement which allows the National Gallery for the first time to show the work of an artist who was hugely admired by the most discriminating connoisseurs and collectors of contemporary French art, both French and foreign, in the final decades of the 18th century.”
National Gallery Director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi said: “Brian Sewell had a profound love for the National Gallery as well as a connoisseur’s passion for lesser known masters; so it is especially pleasing that Lagrenée’s beautiful and refined Maternal Affection, which he owned, has come to the Gallery as a gift from his estate.”
Maternal Affection can now be seen in Room 33 of the National Gallery hanging alongside other French 18th-century paintings by artists such as Boucher, Vigée Le Brun, Boilly, Nattier, Detroy, and Vernet.
Miguel Zugaza To Step Down as Director of Prado for Bilbao
Press release (30 November 2016) from the Prado:
This morning, Miguel Zugaza informed the Permanent Committee of the Royal Board of Trustees of his decision to conclude his term next year as director of the Museo del Prado after fifteen years in the position. He also announced his intention to reassume the post of director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum on the retirement of its present director.
In a text addressed to Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, and to Unai Rementeria, Chairman of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Miguel Zugaza stated that he “considers the goals established during his term of office to have been fulfilled and expresses his thanks for all the support received.” The Museum’s Director for the past fifteen years considers that “the Museum is now embarking on a new and exciting phase with the focus on its bicentenary and on the completion of the Museo del Prado Campus with the addition of the Hall of Realms.” At the same time, he considers himself “extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to return to the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum (of which he was director between 1995 and 2001) and offer it all the experience he has acquired.”
The Minister of Education, Culture and Sport has personally thanked Miguel Zugaza for the services he has rendered the Museum over so many years and has asked him to continue to be involved in its bicentenary project through the Committee for the 2nd centenary of the Museo Nacional del Prado in 2019.
For his part and in the name of the Bilbao museum’s founding institutions (the City Council of Bilbao, the Provincial Government of Bizkaia and the Basque Government), the Chairman of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and current president of the Bilbao museum’s Board of Trustees expressed his satisfaction at being able to count on Miguel Zugaza for leading the museum forward after the outstanding contribution made over the past years by Javier Viar Olloqui. Both institutions have agreed to stay in contact in order to facilitate the transition of directorship of the respective museums. With this aim in mind, the Minister will propose to the Prado’s Royal Board of Trustees the creation of a specific committee at the Museum. As established in its statutes, it will initiate the selection procedure prior to the proposal of a new appointment to the Council of Ministers. Mr Zugaza will remain in his position with all the powers authorised by it until a new director is appointed.
José Pedro Pérez-Llorca, president of the Museum’s Royal Board of Trustees, wished to emphasise that “the Museo del Prado will never be able to sufficiently express its thanks to Miguel Zugaza for his intelligence, wisdom and imagination and the authority with which he has led the Museum”, and that “the results of his efforts, namely the great success of the Prado, speak for themselves.”
New Book | A Golden Age of European Art
From Yale UP:
Edited by James Clifton and Melina Kervandjian with essays by Barbara Baert, Andrea Bayer, Anne Dunlop, Steven Ostrow, Lisa Pon, Martin Postle, and Arthur K. Wheelock, A Golden Age of European Art: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-0300207811, $65.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the acclaimed Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, this commemorative book presents masterpieces from the foundation’s collection. The works span more than 400 years, from the 16th through the early 20th century, and feature a range of media including paintings, prints, and printed books. After a comprehensive introduction to the foundation and its collection, essays by eight scholars present new scholarship on key works. The featured objects include an image of the Madonna and Child by the Florentine painter Giuliano Bugiardini; Richard Wilson’s iconic 18th-century composition The White Monk; printed materials in Venice that bridged Jewish and Christian cultures; and portraits by Paolo Veronese, Simon Vouet, and others. With more than 200 illustrations, this beautiful publication is a rich survey as well as a timely celebration of this exceptional collection.
James Clifton is director of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation and curator of Renaissance and Baroque painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Prado Commission Awarded to Norman Foster and Carlos Rubio
Foster + Partners and Rubio Arquitectura, ‘Hidden Design’: Winning Proposal for the Restoration and Remodeling of the Salón de Reinos Museo del Prado, announced November 2016.
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Press release (24 November 2016) from the Prado:
Architects Norman Foster and Carlos Rubio have been announced as winners of the projects competition to remodel the Hall of Realms at the Museo del Prado. The Museum will exhibit the winning proposal along with those of the other seven teams of finalists from 1 December.
Iñígo Méndez de Vigo, Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, led the plenary meeting of the Royal Board of Trustees of the Museo del Prado in which the jury announced the winner of the international competition for the architectural restoration and museological remodelling of the Salón de Reinos [Hall of Realms] of the former Buen Retiro palace. The winning proposal is the one presented by the team of Foster + Partners LTD and Rubio Arquitectura SLP, as decided at the jury’s meeting on 22 November.
The winning proposal, entitled Hidden Design, makes maximum use of the building’s museological aspect and creates a large entrance atrium on the south façade, making this space semi-open and permeable to the exterior but sufficiently controlled for it to function to protect the original façade of the Hall of Realms, the windows and balconies of which will be reinstated. Emerging over the top of this façade will be a large exhibition space on the third floor, which is higher and wider than the present one, forming the roof of the atrium and a terrazza facing the Museum’s ‘campus’. The winning design fully responds to the spatial requirements specified by the Museum for this project, without the need to excavate new basement levels. It emphasises the historical spaces that form the core of the building, particularly the Hall of Realms. Similarly, it strengthens and consolidates the identity of the Museo del Prado campus, proposing a pedestrian section of the Retiro Park—Paseo del Prado axis along calle Felipe IV which will revitalise its connection with the city.
In its decision statement the jury singled out the principal merits of this project as the high quality of the architectural proposal, which respects and emphasises the pre-existing structure, adapting it to present-day requirements; the intelligent way in which this project meets museological requirements; the skilled integration of the building into its surroundings and into the overall context of the Museo del Prado campus; and the project’s efficient cost study.
The aim of the competition of which the winner has now been announced and which was originally published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 1 March 2016, was to select the architectural team to devise the project to restore and refit the Hall of Realms, part of the lost Buen Retiro palace and the former home of the Museo del Ejército [Army Museum]. This building was formerly passed to the Museo del Prado in October 2015.
The competition, entered by 47 teams of architects, has consisted of two parts. The first, open part ended in June with the selection of eight teams:
• CRUZ Y ORTIZ ARQUITECTOS, SLP
• NIETO SOBEJANO ARQUITECTOS, SLP
• UTE: B720 ARQUITECTURA, SL – DAVID CHIPPERFIELD ARCHITECTS
• OFFICE FOR METROPOLITAN ARCHITECTURE (OMA) STEDEBOUW BV
• UTE: SOUTO MOURA ARQUITECTOS, SA – JUAN MIGUEL HERNÁNDEZ LEÓN – CARLOS DE RIAÑO LOZANO
• UTE: FOSTER + PARTNERS LTD – RUBIO ARQUITECTURA SLP
• UTE: GARCES DE SETA BONET ARQUITECTES, SLP – PEDRO FEDUCHI CANOSA
• UTE: GLUCKMAN TANG ARCHITECTS LLP – ESTUDIO ÁLVAREZ SALA, SLP – ARQUITECTURA ENGUITA Y LASSO DE LA VEGA, SLP
These teams devised their proposals for the second phase, presenting them on 31 October. In its decision statement, jury singled out the quality of all the projects presented, which will be displayed in the Cloister of the Museum’s Jerónimos Building from 1 December. Preparation of the project will commence in 2017 and is expected to take about 16 months. Building work will begin in 2018.
UTE: Foster + Partners LTD – Rubio Arquitectura SLP
This is a temporary alliance of the architectural studios Foster + Partners and Rubio Arquitectura. Foster + Partners was founded in 1967 by Norman Foster (born Manchester, 1935). With its headquarters in London, it has offices in 14 cities around the world including Hong Kong, New York, São Paulo, Singapore, and Madrid. Among Foster + Partners’ most important projects for museums are those undertaken for the Carré d’Art (Nîmes, 1993), the Great Court and Sainsbury Galleries in the British Museum (London, 2000), the Robert and Alene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C., 2007), the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, 2010), the Lenbachhaus (Munich, 2013), and the Imperial War Museum (London, 2014). Among numerous awards and honours, Norman Foster received the Pritzker Prize in 1999, the Mies van der Rohe Award for Contemporary Architecture in 1990, and the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects in 1994. The Prince of Asturias Prize for the Arts in 2009 recognised his entire career as an architect.
Rubio Arquitectura was founded in 2014 by the architect Carlos Rubio Carvajal (born Barcelona, 1950) and has its headquarters in Madrid. The studio is currently working on various projects in Spain and abroad, including Russia and Saudi Arabia. Awards include the COAM Architecture Prize in 1989.
Workshop | Etching for Curators and Researchers
From the workshop flyer:
Etching: A Practice-Based Workshop for Curators and Researchers
Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Suffolk, 29–30 March 2017
Convened by Jason Hicklin and Peter Moore
Join us for a two-day workshop at Gainsborough’s House that will bring together professionals whose work deals with prints—and in particular, etchings. Through a series of practical sessions in the Gainsborough’s House Print Workshop, accompanied by discussions around works from the collection, participants will gain a better appreciation of the materiality of etchings and a more nuanced understanding of how these processes have been applied and adapted by different artists at different times. The conception of this workshop represents a methodological shift in the academic study of prints, in which object-led and practice-based forms of research are increasingly recognised as valuable components of an art-historical education—especially for those who care for or interpret prints in a curatorial capacity.
Day one (Wednesday) will explore the processes of hard ground and soft ground etching. The first of these techniques, developed in the early sixteenth century, was mastered by artists such as Dürer and Rembrandt and came to occupy a central role in the history of western European art. The innovation of soft ground etching occurred later, in the second half of the eighteenth century, and was particularly popular in Britain; Gainsborough was among its earliest pioneers.
Day two (Thursday) will focus on aquatint, developed in the 1770s. As a tonal method, aquatint presented printmakers with a range of new possibilities for image making. Since its conception, it has been considered as a complementary technique to soft ground etching, and Gainsborough often used it in this way. The popularity of aquatint has continued into the modern era, with the sugar-lift process being favoured by Picasso.
The course will be jointly convened by Jason Hicklin, Lead Tutor and Head of Printmaking at the City & Guilds of London Art School, and Dr Peter Moore, Research Curator at Gainsborough’s House. Each day will run from 10am to 4pm. The cost is £180 (inc. VAT) and includes lunch and refreshments, but not accommodation. For further enquiries and to reserve your place, please contact peter@gainsborough.org. Limited places are available, so early booking is advised.
New Book | Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Royal Collection
Published by the Royal Collection Trust and distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Chicago:
John Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 3 volumes (London: Royal Collection Trust, 2016), 1296 pages, ISBN: 978-1905686490, £150 / $250.
The Royal Collection includes some of the most important examples of Eastern applied art in the Western world, reflecting the West’s long-standing appetite for rarities from distant lands. With more than 2,000 objects distributed across the royal residences in England and Scotland, the collection represents a rich cross-section of Chinese and Japanese porcelains, jades, lacquers, and other works of art.
This three-volume catalogue raisonné covers this substantial and important collection in comprehensive detail. It includes for the first time the many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century bronze mounts that are such a striking feature of the collection. Made in French and British workshops to enhance the objects they display, the mounts themselves are often of superb quality and of great historical importance.
More than 2,400 colour images are used to illustrate the collection, including intricate decorative details and makers’ marks. Introductory essays cover the history and development of the collection and the ways in which these works of art have been displayed in the royal palaces and adapted according to the fashions of the day.
Volume One presents the Chinese ceramics of the Ming and Qing dynasties in chronological order (continued in Volume Two). In addition, due to their unique historical significance, the contents of the collection at Hampton Court Palace are presented here separately. Volume Two continues the works of the Qing dynasty, and ends with the Japanese works; the volume also contains a special focus on the European mounts that were added to works of Chinese and Japanese porcelain during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Volume Three contains non-porcelain works, namely lacquer, jade and other hardstones, carved ivories, textiles and metalwork. Many of these works came into the Royal Collection as Imperial gifts, to George III, Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and Queen Alexandra, with the exception of the Japanese lacquer wares, which were acquired for George IV to furnish the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. Although not much studied, these pieces were admired by the royal family, and Chinese rooms were created at Windsor and Sandringham House, decorated with an eclectic mixture of European chinoiserie and authentic works of Asian art.
Buckingham Palace Slated for £369Million Renovation
Buckingham Palace, London. The East Front, originally constructed by Edward Blore and completed in 1850, acquired its present appearance following a remodeling in 1913 by Sir Aston Webb (Photo by David Iliff, April 2009, License: CC-BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons).
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As reported by Stephen Castle for The New York Times (19 November 2016) . . .
The boilers are shot, the water pipes sag, and the 60-year-old cabling is a fire hazard. Buckingham Palace, home to Queen Elizabeth II, may not exactly be falling down, but it badly needs refurbishing, the British government said on Friday, citing “a serious risk of fire, flood and damage.” Renovations on the building will start in April and will take a decade to complete, at a cost of £369 million ($456 million). The announcement adds to the list of prestigious structures in Britain that need work, including the crumbling Palace of Westminster, home of the British Parliament.
The building that would become Buckingham Palace was built in the early 1700s and became a royal residence when George III bought it in 1761. The queen carries out most of her official ceremonial and diplomatic duties as head of state in the palace. She would not have to move out while the work was in progress, officials said. . . .
The full article is available here»
Writing for The Guardian, Caroline Davies addresses in more detail the financial arrangements, including the controversies around spending £369 million in a time of austerity.
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