Editing Neil MacGregor (section)

===Directorship of the British Museum===
[[File:Neil MacGregor (5201330446).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|right|MacGregor in front of a British Museum display on [[Sutton Hoo]] in 2010]]
MacGregor was made director of the [[British Museum]] in August 2002, at a time when that institution was £5 million in deficit. He has been lauded for his "diplomatic" approach to the post, though MacGregor rejects this description, stating that "diplomat is conventionally taken to mean the promotion of the interests of a particular state and that is not what we are about at all".<ref name="Campbell-Johnson">{{cite news
  | title      = Briton of the Year: Neil MacGregor
  | first      = Rachel
  | last       = Campbell-Johnson
  | url        = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5400493.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1
  | work       = [[The Times]]
  | date       = 27 December 2008
| access-date = 18 July 2009
| location   = London
}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

His tenure included exhibitions that were more provocative than the museum had previously shown and some told stories from perspectives that were less Eurocentric than previously, including a project about the Muslim [[Hajj]]. He sparked debate with his claim that the ancient [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian empire]] was greater than [[Ancient Greece]].<ref>Jonathan Jones, [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2015/apr/08/neil-macgregor-british-museum-legacy-future-challenge Neil MacGregor saved the British Museum. It’s time to reinvent it again], the Guardian, 8 April 2015.</ref>

In 2010, MacGregor presented a series on [[BBC Radio 4]] and the [[BBC World Service|World Service]] entitled ''[[A History of the World in 100 Objects]]'', based on one hundred artefacts held in the British Museum's collection.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec11/100objects_11-07.html |title=The Story of Humanity Told Through '100 Objects' |date=7 November 2011 |work=[[PBS NewsHour]] |publisher=[PBS] |access-date=6 May 2012 |archive-date=6 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120506000431/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec11/100objects_11-07.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

From September 2010 to January 2011 the British Museum lent the ancient Persian [[Cyrus Cylinder]] to an exhibition in Tehran, Iran. This was seen by at least a million visitors on the Museum's estimation, more than any loan exhibition to the United Kingdom had attracted since the ''Treasures of Tutankhamun'' exhibition in 1972.<ref>{{cite news
  | first      = Ben
  | last       = Hoyle
  | title      = Negotiations over first bill of rights allows access to Ahmedinejad regime
  | url        = http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/negotiations-over-first-bill-of-rights-allows-access-to-ahmedinejad-regime/story-e6frg6so-1226040786431
  | work       = The Times (Syndicated in The Australian)
  | date       = 18 April 2008
| access-date = 19 April 2011
}}</ref>

Holding tenure when the [[Acropolis Museum]] in Athens was completed, MacGregor followed previous Directors in arguing against returning the sculptures from the [[Parthenon]] (the "[[Elgin Marbles]]") to Greece.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/neil-macgregor-there-is-no-possibility-of-putting-the-elgin-marbles-back-0j2lpv5mff5|title=Neil MacGregor: 'There is no possibility of putting the Elgin Marbles back'|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=7 November 2014|access-date=20 August 2018}}</ref> A poll in 2014 suggested that more British people (37%) supported the marbles' restoration to Greece than opposed it (23%).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/10/18/british-people-tend-want-elgin-marbles-returned/|title=British people tend to want Elgin marbles returned|newspaper=Yougov.co.uk|date=18 October 2014|access-date=24 June 2018}}</ref>
MacGregor argued that it is the British Museum's duty to "preserve the universality of the marbles, and to protect them from being appropriated as a nationalistic political symbol",<ref>{{cite news
  | title      = Greek government unveils new home for Elgin Marbles
  | first      = Andrew
  | last       = Pierce
  | author-link = Andrew Pierce
  | url        = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/5304133/Greek-government-unveils-new-home-for-Elgin-Marbles.html
  | work       = [[The Daily Telegraph]]
  | date       = 11 May 2009
| access-date = 4 November 2014
| location   = London
}}</ref> and that "there is no legal system in Europe that would challenge the [British Museum's] legal title" to the works.<ref>{{cite magazine
  | title      = A Talk: With Neil MacGregor
  | first      = Richard
  | last       = Lacayo
  | url        = https://entertainment.time.com/2007/11/05/a_talk_with_neil_macgregor/
  | magazine   = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]
  | date       = 5 November 2007
| access-date = 4 November 2014
}}</ref> The legal basis of various [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] documents, now lost, to which the British Museum has traditionally appealed in order to claim ownership of the sculptures is disputed.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=David Rudenstein|title=Did Elgin Cheat at Marbles?|journal=Nation|date=29 May 2000|volume=270|issue=21|page=30|quote=Yet no researcher has ever located this Ottoman document and when l was in Istanbul I searched in vain for it or any copy of it, or any reference to it in other sorts of documents or a description of its substantive terms in any related official papers. Although a document of some sort may have existed, it seems to have vanished into thin air, despite the fact the Ottoman archives contain an enormous number of similar documents from the period.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parthenon.newmentor.net/illegal.htm|title=WAS THE REMOVAL OF THE MARBLES ILLEGAL? |author=Professor Vassilis Demetriades|work=newmentor.net}}</ref> Under the directorship of MacGregor, the Museum rejected [[UNESCO]] mediation.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2013/10/04/unesco-letter-to-british-government-for-the-return-of-parthenons-marbles/|title=UNESCO sent letter to British Government for the return of Parthenon's Marbles |publisher=UNESCO |date=4 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019111639/http://www.iemc-unesco.org/unesco-letter-to-british-government-for-the-return-of-parthenons-marbles/ |archive-date=19 October 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite conference|url=http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/19_ICPRCP_Recommendations_en_final.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141123173044/http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/19_ICPRCP_Recommendations_en_final.pdf|archive-date=23 November 2014|conference=INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE FOR PROMOTING THE RETURN OF CULTURAL PROPERTY TO ITS COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN OR ITS RESTITUTION IN CASE OF ILLICIT APPROPRIATION, 19th session|title=... takes note that the United Kingdom has not yet written back to UNESCO|publisher=UNESCO|date=1–2 October 2014|page=5|id=ICPRCP/14/19.COM/8}}</ref>

In January 2008, MacGregor was appointed chairman of the World Collections programme, for training international curators at British museums.<ref>{{cite web
 |title      = Neil Macgregor to chair 'World collections programme', to share British cultural excellence with Africa and Asia
 |url        = http://www.gov-news.org/gov/uk/news/neil_macgregor_chair_39world_collections/42766.html
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110726125609/http://www.gov-news.org/gov/uk/news/neil_macgregor_chair_39world_collections/42766.html
 |url-status   = usurped
 |archive-date = 26 July 2011
|work       = United Kingdom Government News
 |date       = 18 January 2008
|access-date = 6 February 2011
}}</ref> The exhibition ''The First Emperor'', focussing on [[Qin Shi Huang]] and including a small number of his [[Terracotta Army|Terracotta Warriors]], was mounted in 2008 in the [[British Museum Reading Room]]. That year MacGregor was invited to succeed [[Philippe de Montebello]] as the Director of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York. He declined the offer as the Metropolitan charges its visitors for entry and is thus "not a public institution".<ref name="Campbell-Johnson" />

As of 2015, MacGregor was paid a salary of between £190,000 and £194,999 by the British Museum, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/492289/150K_senior_salaries.csv/preview|title=Senior officials 'high earners' salaries as at 30 September 2015 – GOV.UK|date=17 December 2015|website=www.gov.uk|access-date=13 March 2016|archive-date=4 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504113001/https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/492289/150K_senior_salaries.csv/preview|url-status=dead}}</ref> MacGregor retired from the post in December 2015 and was succeeded in spring 2016 by [[Hartwig Fischer]], till then the director of the [[Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden |Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (''"Dresden State Art Collections"'')]].<ref>{{cite news
| title = Hartwig Fischer confirmed as British Museum director
| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34389372
| work = BBC News
| date = 29 September 2015
| access-date = 3 May 2016
}}</ref>