Mary Beard. Debating Museums: The Long History of Contests and Controversies

This is an opportunity to experience one of the world's most prominent ancient scholars, the British classical philologist Mary Beard, when the Glyptotek, in collaboration with the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, opens the doors to this public lecture. The lecture title is ‘Debating museums: the Long History of Contests and Controversies’.

After the lecture, the Academy offers light refreshments. The lecture will be in English.

The event is free, but reservation is mandatory. Note: All spots are reserved, but you can join the waiting list here.

We encourage you to order a ticket only if you are sure you can attend. Space is limited, and we would like to fill every seat. If you are unable to attend, please cancel so that we can give your place to someone else.

With a keen eye for the past and contemporary communication, Mary Beard cuts to the bone and discusses the role of museums – and their long history of conflict and controversy. For although museums today are controversial, we are not the first generation to experience them this way. Museums have always been seen as places that contain danger as well as learning, history, wonder and preservation. One could even say that part of their purpose has always been to create space for discussion and disagreement about ourselves and the past.

In this lecture, Mary Beard explores the long history of controversy and conflict in and around museums, partly through fiction, children's books and comics, such as fantasies about what might happen in the museum after closing time, and satire on museum rules and regulations, such as "Do Not Touch".

But even more important are the debates that museum exhibitions have sparked: about power, history, and ownership. Discussions about restitution and where museum objects really belong are not just a modern, postcolonial phenomenon. With a series of surprising examples, Mary Beard shows how these disputes have haunted museums since the beginning of the modern museum movement.

Cambridge Classics Professor Emerita and Fellow of Newnham College, Mary Beard, is known across the world. She has written numerous books including the prize-winning ‘Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town’, best-selling ‘SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome’ and the highly-acclaimed ‘Women & Power’ and ‘Twelve Caesars – Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern’, all of which have been translated into multiple languages. Mary is a regular media commentator and has presented several BBC Radio and TV series on history and culture including ‘Meet the Romans’, ‘Civilisations’, ‘The Shock of the Nude’, ‘Meet the Roman Emperor and Being Roman with Mary Beard’. Mary also writes a thought-provoking blog, ‘A Don's Life’. For services to Classical scholarship, Mary was made a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2018 and is a trustee of the British Museum. Her latest book, ‘Emperor of Rome’, explores one of the most extraordinary roles in history. She has recently launched a podcast, ‘Instant Classics’, where she discusses all things ancient (and modern) with her co-host, Guardian journalist Charlotte Higgins.