British Library’s £1.1bn extension goes ahead, backed by Japanese developer

The British Library can now go ahead with a huge £1.1bn expansion after the Japanese real estate developer Mitsui Fudosan agreed to invest in the project, reports the BBC. The scheme will create nearly 10,000 sq m of new space for ‘culture, learning, research and business’ as well as more than 55,000 sq m of commercial space, reports Architect’s Journal. The plans were approved by Camden Council in July 2024 although funding was still to be confirmed. The extension will be linked to the existing Grade I-listed building designed by Colin St John Wilson and M.J. Long and there will be a new foyer and additional public entrances. The conservation centre, completed in 2007, will be demolished to make way for a new 12-storey building next to Francis Crick Institute, intended for life-science businesses and a new headquarters for the Alan Turing Institute. The development agreement includes a £23m contribution towards affordable housing, affordable workspaces and a new community garden in the area. Construction will begin in 2026 and is expected to be completed by 2032. Rebecca Lawrence, chief executive of the British Library, said: ‘The plans will open up the library even further, creating an expanded national library with state-of-the-art new spaces.’

Just six days after President Trump issued an executive order axing the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Keith Sonderling, deputy secretary of labour, has been appointed acting director of the agency. The original order, published on 14 March, classed IMLS among seven ‘unnecessary’ federal agencies, and ordered for it to be abolished ‘to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law’. The institute is one of the largest sources of funding for museums and libraries in the United States, along with the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In the 2024 financial year, it gave out $266.7 million in grants, with recipients including LACMA and the New York Historical. Sonderling has expressed his determination to ‘revitalise IMLS and restore focus on patriotism’. The move is the latest in the new administration’s efforts to slash the federal government and reshape cultural institutions across the country.

The art advisor Lisa Schiff has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for stealing $6.5m from more than a dozen clients, the New York Times. The judge sentenced Schiff, who pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud last October, to 30 months in federal prison after which she will be on supervised release for two years. Between 2018 and 2023, Schiff used clients’ money to pay her own personal and business expenses and fund what a prosecutor described as ‘a lavish lifestyle’. After being confronted by clients, who included the real-estate heiress Candace Barasch and the dealer Adam Sheffer, Schiff turned herself into the authorities in May 2023. She declared bankruptcy in January 2024. Schiff’s personal art collection will be auctioned to repay her clients, and she has been ordered to pay a forfeit of $6.4m and restitution of $9m.

The London Museum (formerly the Museum of London) has received a £20m donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable arm of media company Bloomberg, reports ART news. It is the largest private donation that the institution has received to date and will fund the development of two buildings in its new home in Smithfield Market, which is due to open in 2026. Bloomberg is also giving the museum more than 14,000 Roman artefacts, many of which have never been on public display. An archaeology team from the Museum of London uncovered the objects during the construction of Bloomberg’s City of London offices between 2012 and 2014. Sharon Ament, director of London Museum, said that ‘the collection together with this generous donation represents a momentous gift that ties the past to the future and which will be a lasting legacy for London’.

Maud Page will be the next director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), the state’s ministry of arts announced on Friday. Page, who is currently deputy director and director of collections, has worked at the AGNSW since 2017. She has played a key role in expanding the representation of First Nations artists through several major exhibitions, and has been a ‘driving force’ in growing its audience engagement, said minister for the arts John Graham. Before joining the AGNSW, Page was deputy director of collections and exhibitions at the Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art and also a lecturer in museum studies at the University of Sydney. She will take up her post at the end of this month and succeeds Michael Brand, who announced his departure in October last year after more than 13 years as director.