The British Museum has just unveiled the winning design in an international architectural competition for the substantial revamp of the so-called Western Range of the museum which constitutes about one third of its overall gallery space. But what is intriguing is what fate now awaits the Parthenon Sculptures which Greece has long campaigned to have returned to Athens.
Transformation of the West Wing of the British Museum
The Western Range includes all the galleries to the west of the Great Court in its iconic central London site of Bloomsbury and currently houses collections and objects from Ancient Egypt, Greece (including the controversial Elgin Collection of Parthenon Marbles held in the Duveen Gallery), Rome, Assyria and the Middle East. It is described in the tender documentation as a “warren of inflexible and static rooms … in a state that is below modern expectations”.
In May 2024 the British Museum launched the competition as part of its Masterplan, a long-term strategic framework to modernise the museum’s aging buildings while preserving its historical architecture. It hoped to select an exceptional architect-led design team to help reimagine the gallery space and enhance back-of-house collections storage through contemporary architecture and innovative gallery displays. The Museum received sixty entries from architecture practices around the world which competed in a two-stage process to distill an architectural vision and design clarity whilst respecting the existing historical and contextual fabric of the site.
The Museum’s director, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, has in fact described the Western Range redevelopment as “one of the most significant cultural redevelopment projects anywhere in the world”.
The expert jury panel, chaired by the British Museum’s Board of Trustees, George Osborne, comprised of leading architecture experts, including Meneesha Kellay from the Victoria and Albert Museum and Sarah Younger of the National Gallery London. They were joined by a number of trustees, together with the Director Nicholas Cullinan and former Interim Director Mark Jones.
And the winner is … Lina Ghotmeh Architecture
The unanimous winner of the international competition is the Paris-based studio Lina Ghotmeh Architecture (LG-A). Regarded as a rising star of architecture, the multi-award winning architect Lina Ghotmeh prevailed over some major competitors, including David Chipperfield, who in 2023 was appointed by the Greek Government to undertake the renovation and expansion of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
As part of their submission, the competitors were asked to create a short video describing the team’s Vision and Approach. This was the LG-A submission:
The British Museum in its media release declared that Ghotmeh’s vision especially resonated with the panel because of its ‘archaeological’ approach to architectural design, particularly as the Paris-based architect likened each new project to an archeological dig, looking at a building’s past to support its reimagining.
While the final design is yet to be developed, early renders released by the successful architectual firm and the British Museum imagine lofty galleries complete with “materially sensitive” interiors and openings that draw ample light. At ground level, a centralised exhibition space is depicted with seating for visitors backed by arched openings, while tiered balconies are designed to host additional gallery space.
LG-A will now work with the museum to create a final design to be shared with the public by mid-2026.
According to the statement from the British Museum, while some galleries will be closed for certain periods, the Museum as a whole will remain open with key objects from the Western Range galleries to be displayed elsewhere in the museum whilst other objects may be loaned as part of the commitment to increasing national and international cultural exchanges.
It was also noted that as part of the overall architectural transformation the new galleries may well house different collections given the long-term phasing of the Western Range project.
According to the British Museum director, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Lina Ghotmeh is an architect of extraordinary grace and gravitas who will transform the British Museum.
Interestingly, the official photo of the architect and the museum director has them seated in front of the Nereid Monument, the largest and finest of the Lycian tombs from Xanthos in south-west Turkey, which is housed in Room 17 of the museum, in front of the Duveen Gallery where the Parthenon Sculptures are currently exhibited.
Will the Parthenon Sculptures be replaced by the Bassae Frieze?
What is interesting to this writer is that the photorealistic renders used by the architect and released by the British Museum, together with the narrative surrounding the proposed extensive redevelopment of the British Museum, do not make any specific reference to the Parthenon Sculptures, other than a rendered reproduction of a column from the Parthenon which the British Museum refused to return during the extensive restoration and conservation works on the Acropolis (and which has since been replaced on the Parthenon by a copy in new stone).
Is that possibly out of deference to the high-level negotiations that are reportedly well in advance towards the establishment of a long-term cultural partnership between the British Museum and the Greek Government for the staged return of the Parthenon Sculptures to the Acropolis Museum?
One news organisation remarked that one of the rendered models for the redesigned galleries appears to show friezes resembling the Parthenon Sculptures set “snugly against the museum walls” and noted that the museum did not address the marbles in its statement.
But to the discerning eye of some, the main rendering actually depicts panels of a magnificent frieze which was rediscovered in 1811 at the Temple of Apollo in Bassae in Greece by a team led by the British architect and adventurer, Charles Cockerell, also a contemporary of Lord Elgin. The Bassae sculptures, featuring iconic sculptured scenes of the fabled Centauromachy and Amazonomachy, were later removed and in 1815 were ‘acquired’ at auction by the British Government and transferred to the British Museum.
The Bassae Sculptures are currently housed in Room 16 (a dimly-lit room at mezzanine level) of the British Museum but would acquire a new meaning in the re-imagined Western Range galleries of the British Museum.
The proposed transformation and re-imagining of the British Museum is to be applauded for this venerable cultural institution. But it would also be consummated by the final reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in the iconic Acropolis Museum in Athens.
This would indeed be a creative cultural transformation and reimagination in both London and Athens for the ages.
George Vardas is the Arts and Culture Editor and a longtime advocate for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures