Welcome back to GLOBAL MUSEUM, your award-winning & free online compendium, read weekly since 1998 by 8,000+ readers in more than 201 countries.

** The struggle behind Tate Modern's birth

On the birth of Tate Modern, Nicholas Serota, who retired as the Tate’s director in 2017, says today he was concerned about dividing British and international art at a time of increasing European integration.

** 7 Museum Facts That Will Surprise You

We’ve scoured the globe for some of the best-kept museum secrets—ranging from escape hatches designed to foil the Nazis to an underground bowling alley dating back to the Gilded Age.

** Museums get creative to engage new audiences

Across the country, you can see a burst of creative approaches within these cultural institutions, all designed to draw in new audiences: yoga classes, pop-ups, custom beer , cat film festivals, night-time parties with signature cocktails and DJs, dog-friendly days, scavenger hunts and more.

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** The museum is the message

When it comes to arts education, museums and their curatorial staff have the ability to send powerful messages to attendees, especially young people, through the artists they choose to include in their hallowed halls.

** Hidden Elves at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Back in the 1970s, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science hired an artist to paint the backdrops for many of the museum’s wildlife dioramas, unaware of his penchant for hiding tiny mythical creatures in these paintings would add a whole new dimension to the museum experience.

** Augmented Reality Is Transforming Museums

Museums have long dealt with unauthorized augmentations of their exhibitions, such as unofficial tours, but technology has opened up new possibilities for activists and art enthusiasts eager to have a part in shaping the museum-going experience.

** Giant, Intact Egg of the Extinct Elephant Bird Found in Buffalo Museum

The eggs of the Aepyornis, also known as the elephant bird, were a highly valuable food source for Madagascar’s human settlers.

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** Dutch museums to conduct new research on the paintings of Pieter de Hooch

The technical research conducted by the Rijksmuseum’s conservators and researchers is focusing on the six Pieter de Hooch paintings in the museum’s collection, which date from around 1650 to 1670.

** The good, the bad, and the ugly of heritage conservation in India

It’s hard to think of a monument more emblematic of India or more recognisable than the Taj Mahal, although the famed mausoleum has become the focus of an intense campaign to erase the legacy of Muslim rule in the region.

** UK's National Portrait Gallery Makes 24 Staff Redundant

Terrorism fears, transport problems and the expense of a trip to central London are believed to be behind a fall in visitor numbers at several of the city’s national museums and galleries last year.

** An indoor rainforest for your new museum? Not a problem

This UK company built each of the 800 exhibits, from detail-perfect replica dinosaurs to aircraft and a rainforest in each of the four Kuwaiti museums.

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** The pros and cons of art-scanning museum apps

When it comes to introducing cell phone-based technology into museums, the experiences will live or die on the app-maker's ability to execute a flawless user experience — and on their imaginations.

** The African American History and Culture Museum Wins Gold for Going Green

Subtly and in many cases quite cleverly, the design of the museum avoids resource waste without diminishing the visitor experience or imperilling its artifacts.

** Did ancient Mesopotamians get high?

New techniques for analysing residues in excavated jars and identifying tiny amounts of plant material suggest that ancient Near Easterners indulged in a range of psychoactive substances.

** A Researcher’s Quest to Decode the Specimens on a Museum’s Mystery Shelf

An assistant curator at the Grant Museum of Zoology in London has set out to take stock of some of the 5,000 specimens housed in what they call the wet storage facility, a chilly basement room packed with 26 shelving units.

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** Jewel-encrusted tiaras stolen from Missouri History Museum

Like any good museum caper involving stolen jewels, there are many unknowns about the two gem-encrusted tiaras that turned up missing this week at the Missouri History Museum.

** Sir David Attenborough on AMNH Collections

Go behind the scenes with Sir David Attenborough in the Museum's Webby Award-nominated360-video as he explains how museum collections help us learn more about—and protect—the natural world.

** Digitally ‘restoring’ a WWII souvenir textile

A Te Papa Textiles conservator discusses the process of digitally restoring colour to a faded Egyptian souvenir from World War II.

** The best European museum exhibits for spring 2018

This spring, Europe’s museums are revisiting important artists, including Rubens, Picasso, Rodin, Monet and Delacroix, as well as important moments in ancient and modern history.

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** At Museum ‘Stroller Tours,’ Babies Cry, Nap and Admire Kandinsky

Museums are looking for ways to expand their visitor base, and the tours offer worn-down parents a ray of intellectual diversion amid diaper changes and feedings.

** An Age of Luxury: the Assyrians to Alexander

Exhibition Venue: Special Exhibition Gallery, Hong Kong Museum of History

** Sir David Attenborough on Museum Collections

You may know the American Museum of Natural History's exhibits, but only a tiny portion of our world-class collection is on view

** Hyperconnected Museums: New Approaches, New Publics

International Museum Day 2018, Hong Kong

** This Week's Horoscopes

Pisces - Expect little change from last week, aside from the marauding badgers growing rudimentary thumbs and learning to use chipped flint tools

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