Art Fund Prize: British Museum nominated for £100,000 award for radio series

London’s British Museum has been nominated for the UK’s largest arts prize following the success of the popular Radio 4 series, ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’.

By Florence Waters, The Telegraph, 03 Feb 2011


'A History of the World in 100 Objects' explored world history through the British Museum’s collection, initiated by the British Museum in partnership with the BBC. The BBC's popular radio series tells a story of global history through the objects on display.

The series, a unique collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum, comprised one hundred 15-minute episodes, broadcast daily on Radio 4 in five tranches and presented the by British Museum’s Director, Neil MacGregor. It was also published in book form in November last year, and both the publication and the programme were widely acclaimed. The Telegraph’s radio critic Gillian Reynolds wrote of the programme:

“When MacGregor described an object I could see it. I could feel it when he stretched the boundaries of familiar maps. I understood the connection he made between the gold of Croesus and a 20th century credit card, I began to grasp the eternal intersections across time of art, politics, commerce, sex and power.”

The Art Fund Prize rarely honours such major institutions with the award.

Full story at The Telegraph.