News

The Managing Director of Harrods has apologised and stepped back from his role as a trustee of Royal Ballet and Opera amid an independent review following allegations of sexual misconduct by the department store’s former owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Michael Ward, who has worked for Harrods since 2006 and for Al Fayed for four years, said he had “stepped back” from all his charity trustee positions while an independent review led by a non-executive committee of the department store’s board takes place.

The review will consider issues arising from several allegations of rape and sexual misconduct made against Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94.

Ward became a trustee of the Royal Ballet and Opera in 2022 and sat on the Finance and Commercial Committee. He was also appointed to the V&A Corporate Advisory Board in August 2020.

In a statement shared with The Guardian, Ward said that Harrods had failed employees by allowing Al Fayed to preside over “a toxic culture of secrecy, intimidation, fear of repercussion and sexual misconduct” but said he was “not aware of his criminality and abuse”.

A Royal Ballet and Opera spokesperson told Arts Professional: “We accepted Michael Ward’s resignation from our Board on 25 September. We'll be looking for a successor in due course.”

A new £1m digital modelling and analysis centre for the conservation and heritage science sector will open next year, it has been announced.

Heritage organisations will be able to bring artefacts to the centre based at Manchester Metropolitan University's PrintCity, where a range of imaging, scanning, and x-ray equipment will be used to pinpoint origins.

The centre is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the UKRI Infrastructure Fund. The university said it would be the first of its kind to provide a "one-stop shop" to access specialist techniques.

Ben Edwards, Reader in Heritage and Archaeology at Manchester Met and Centre Director, said: “We’re incredibly excited about the possibilities for this new facility. 

"For the first time ever, we want to design a low-cost model for access where community groups, volunteer archaeological societies, and staff at small museums and galleries will be able to come and get a full picture of their object, artefact or historical remains."

The centre is expected to open in late 2025.

Rock band Oasis has said it will not use dynamic pricing when tickets go on sale for the US leg of its tour following widespread backlash over the cost of tickets.

The BBC reports that in a statement announcing dates in the US, Canada and Mexico, the group's managers said they wanted to "avoid a repeat of the issues" faced by fans in the UK and Ireland.

When the band's UK dates went on sale, some fans were charged more than £350 for tickets with an initial value of £150.

The UK's competition regulator has launched an investigation into whether Ticketmaster breached consumer protection law.

"It is widely accepted that dynamic pricing remains a useful tool to combat ticket touting and keep prices for a significant proportion of fans lower than the market rate and thus more affordable," the statement issued by the group's managers said.

"But, when unprecedented ticket demand (where the entire tour could be sold many times over at the moment tickets go on sale) is combined with technology that cannot cope with that demand, it becomes less effective and can lead to an unacceptable experience for fans."

Suffolk County Council has opened a £500,000 Culture Project Fund after announcing plans to cut its core arts funding completely earlier this year.

Previously, nine organisations received regular funding from the council, but the new fund will be open to all  arts and museum organisations, freelancers, charities, non-profits, community-focused companies and social enterprises based in the county.

Philip Faircloth-Mutton, the council's Cabinet Member for Environment, Communities, and Equality, said the aim of the fund offering smaller grants of £50,000, £15,000, and £1,500 was to create "happier, healthier, and stronger communities".

The council has previously said it was able to reverse its decision to end cultural funding after the last government unveiled an emergency £600m funding package to help local authorities with rising social care costs.

BBC’s Head of Arts and Classical Music TV, Suzy Klein, has countered suggestions that the broadcaster is not supporting its cultural broadcasting.

Speaking to The Guardian, Klein said there was a  "strong and passionate commitment" to the arts at the BBC that she and her team are "defending...every single day of the week”. 

Her comments follow recent criticism from David Dimbleby and Melvyn Bragg.

Dimbleby told the Guardian that no one at the BBC had “any appetite” for art, while Bragg said no one at the BBC had “the guts to fight back" when arts programmes are cut.

“I massively respect David and Melvyn, but I would push back very strongly against [those accusations]," said Klein.

"We do 28,000 hours of arts and culture content in a year, and almost 30 million people have watched our output in the past 12 months – which is nearly half the population of the UK. It’s hard to say we’re not making arts shows when you look at our programme.”

“I think the thing that is challenging in the current TV environment, which David and Melvyn will be speaking to, is that there is a deluge of content now, and such a fracturing of TV audiences, so it’s harder to find and locate things.

“Art doesn’t just mean one type of audience," she said, claiming that BBC makes more arts content than “all the public service broadcasters and streamers put together”.