Exhibition opening blues

posted by Graham Shaw, curator of the Sacred Exhibition

“Aren’t you thrilled to see Sacred open?” 

Of course I always answer yes, and it’s true, but then you’re never 100% satisfied with the end result, like any other project.  By the time it’s open, you’ve been so close to the exhibition for so long that you more than half want to keep your distance.  But the media in their feeding frenzy won’t let you.  The Press Office is bound to have somebody else lined up for later today. 

The opening night of an exhibition is like receiving the published copy of a book or article you’ve almost forgotten you’d written.  There’s a quick flicker of satisfaction at seeing something taking on its own life in print – or in this case – physical form in the Gallery.  Then the excitement evaporates, to be replaced by feelings of relief and emptiness. 

But somehow curiosity (tinged with more than a touch of ego no doubt) overtakes you again.  You have to see whether anyone has actually bothered to come in today to see the exhibition.  You’re drawn back down to the Gallery.  Will the security guard let me in without a ticket this time?  It depends whether it’s the short one (yes) or the tall one (definitely no). 

I’m lucky.  The short one remembers me.  Ever since he asked me “Where’s the Gutenberg Bible?”  “Upstairs in the Ritblat Gallery”.  As an orientalist (that much maligned word), I always take an impish delight in reminding ‘Gutenberg groupies’ that moveable metal type technology was being practised by the Koreans decades earlier.

Calls from the media are dying down.  No more Sunday morning setting the alarm for 7 o’clock to be able to talk live on ‘Sally on Sunday’ for Radio Scotland, trying not to stare out of the window and not to put my coffee cup down too loudly on the glass table-top.  As I’m being interviewed for the BBC’s Portuguese service in the Gallery, rushing from Lisbon Bible to Codex Sinaiticus to Baybars’ Qur’an, a middle-aged visitor interrupts: “How much is all this worth?” 

“I honestly don’t know”, I say.  “Must be seven, eight figures at least”.  Sotheby’s or Christie’s would have a field day if we asked them in to value our entire collection.  Could make for a great competition - How much is the British Library’s collection worth in pounds sterling? 

The question reminds me just how much of British and world heritage is held here next to St Pancras Station - and the awesome responsibilities that go with that.  But how many people driving down Euston Road are aware of it?  We still have a long way to go in imprinting ourselves on the public consciousness.  Hopefully an exhibition like ‘Sacred’ is helping to move the process of recognition on.

Comments

[Dietmar Witz]

I am not surprised that Mr Shaw does not know the market value of these sacred texts! It is a question I have never asked myself. However I was intrigued. I found in one of your audio articles information that the Tyndale new Testament costed £1 million in 1994. So, if you would buy all the books in the Sacred Exhibition you would need £100-£200 million. One internet article I read suggests that the Chelsea football squad in total is worth £189 million. I like football but I know which I prefer to see, also the exhibition is free!

[Nick Wright]

I'm sure it's a great exhibition, everyone says so, but intending to visit it this quiet Sunday morning I was firstly intimidated by the military-style security guards you've got there, and then informed that I couldn't enter without a ticket, free or not. There was no-one else around so crowd control was irrelevant. With a plethora of signage obscuring the place where the tickets are supposed to be got, and all the while being eyed like a wild beast by the ex-SAS, I left. Can't you tell those fit young men and women they are there to help as well as protect? I've been in secret military bases where the welcome was warmer.