International loans

In addition to making our collections accessible to as many people as possible in the UK, National Museums Scotland is also committed to providing even wider enjoyment of our collections across the globe through our international loans programme. We have lent a variety of objects from all areas of our collections as far afield as Australia, Japan, New Zealand, China, Hungary and the remote Northern Territories of Canada.

Below are some recent examples of overseas loans.

Museum für Kommunikation, Berlin, Germany

30 September 2011 – 26 February 2012
Exhibition: Fashion and Communication

Plate depicting a Jacobite highlander A Chinese plate and a letter to Messrs Wilson of Bannockburn are an unusual combination of objects being lent to this touring exhibition on fashion and communication. However, tartan is the link, as the plate, despite being Chinese, depicts a Jacobite Highlander in tartan carrying bagpipes and the letter is accompanied by a piece of Clan Stewart tartan and contains an order for more. This exhibition will explore the strategies and processes that determine fashion trends, codes behind the fashion and how textiles can be instilled with meaning. The exhibition will tour to the Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt, Germany, later in 2012.

Exhibition Hall, Bonn, Germany

28 August 2008 – 28 February 2010

Museum of Ethnology, Vienna, Austria

10 May 2010 – 13 September 2010

Historiches Museum, Berne, Switzerland

7 October 2010 – 13 February 2011
Exhibition: James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific

This major international exhibition showcases recent research on the navigator and explorer James Cook, 1728-1779 and draws on the great Cook collections held in museums in Vienna, Copenhagen, St. Petersburg and Oxford. For the first time since Cook’s voyages to the South Seas, more than 400 exhibits have been brought together and these include four objects from our collections. These are a knife, a feather standard and a wooden figure, all from Hawaii, and a Nuh-chah-nulth whaling hat from the Nootka Sound in Canada.

Coming up

Musée National de la Marine, Paris, France

7 March – 4 November 2012
Exhibition: Lighthouse

Following the success of our own exhibition in 2010 on the history of Scottish Lighthouses, Shining Lights, the Musée National de la Marine in Paris is staging its own Lighthouse exhibition, which will include a large number objects from the National Museums Scotland’s collections. The loan will include models and drawings of the Eddystone lighthouse, reflector mirrors and lamps.

Dr Alison Morrison-Low's book Northern Lights, about National Museums Scotland lighthouse collection, is available to buy in the Museum shop.

Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany

15 September 2012 – 17 February 2013
Exhibition: The World of Celts: Treasures of Art

National Museums of Scotland will be lending a number of significant archaeological Celtic finds including the magnificent Hunterston brooch pictured here. The exhibition will illustrate the culture and history of the Celts in the first millennium BC and one part of the exhibition will focus on the influence of continental art on British craftsmen, where our artefacts will be displayed.