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The Vulnerability of UK Museums and Galleries Britain's museums and galleries are being left vulnerable to thefts and cyber-attacks that could put priceless collections at risk, MPs have warned. A report by the public accounts committee (PAC) said big security failures in recent years, including the theft of thousands of artefacts from the British Museum and a devastating cyber-attack on the British Library, had exposed serious weaknesses across the sector. Recent Incidents Highlight Security Failures The warning comes less than three years after the British Museum revealed that about 2,000 objects had been stolen, damaged or gone missing from its collections over a period of years, in a scandal that led to the resignation of its director, Hartwig Fischer. The same year, a ransomware attack on the British Library crippled its digital services for months and led to the theft of staff and user data. The Financial Impact on Museums The report found that although UK museums and galleries generated £563m in self-generated income in 2024-25 – a 53% real-terms increase compared with 2021-22 – visitor numbers had yet to recover fully to pre-pandemic levels and institutions continued to face rising staffing and energy costs. There was also a 16% real-terms reduction in government funding after emergency pandemic support came to an end. The Need for Stronger Oversight The committee said such incidents highlighted the need for stronger oversight of both the physical security of collections and museums' digital infrastructure. While the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had facilitated discussions about recent breaches, MPs said it had been unable to identify concrete actions taken across the sector as a result. The Future of Museum Security MPs called on the government to set out what measures museums and galleries had introduced to tackle cyber and physical security risks, including wider use of digital record-keeping systems that could help prevent items disappearing from collections unnoticed. The PAC also questioned whether the current funding model provided sufficient incentives for museums to become financially resilient.

The Power of Indigenous American Art A breeze from the vast North American plains has blown across the rolling Yorkshire hills. The work of 38 Indigenous American artists has filled the galleries of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, transforming their underground space into a world of clay and earth, fabric and ceramics, painting and sculpture that talks of land, memory, oppression and freedom through art. Exploring Ancestral Identity and Tradition Everywhere, there’s a sense of ancestral identity, memory and tradition. It’s in the Navajo weavings of Tyrrell Tapaha and Melissa Cody, the patterned beadwork of Jeffrey Gibson, the dizzying geometricism of Dyani White Hawk’s towering column. They all use traditional aesthetics to explore new ideas: Gibson’s work is about how his queer identity meets his Indigenous culture, White Hawk pushes into pure abstraction, Cody mixes pixelated video game aesthetics into Navajo patterns, and on and on. Everyone here is taking the old ways and pushing them in new directions. The Art of Resistance It’s not all weaving, hides and beads; there are photos, neons and videos here too. But what links most of the work is a sense of art enduring in the face of oppression. Indigenous Americans live on occupied land, they have been persecuted and exploited for centuries, how could their art not reflect that injustice? This is a show full of anger and protest. A Call to Action Edgar Heap of Birds’ placards protest against the exploitation of sacred sites. Yatika Starr Fields hangs tents from the ceiling which were used by protesters fighting against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Sayokla Kindness Williams calls for the return of stolen ancestral land with a beadwork sign. Virgil Ortiz commemorates a Tewa leader who organised a 17th-century revolt against the Spanish with a giant black ceramic bust. After centuries of colonialism and exploitation, there’s just so much anger and pain here. This show isn’t just about the earth and memory, this is art as a form of aesthetic resistance. A Moving and Beautiful Snapshot Among the many exhibitions of Indigenous art that have become such a big trend in UK museums in recent years, this is neither the best nor the worst. But it is a moving and sometimes very beautiful snapshot of art from a diverse community, one united by a shared pain, a love of the land and a belief that, fundamentally, a lot more connects us than divides us.