Neil MacGregor gives the Tenth Lee Seng Tee Distinguished Lecture

Neil MacGregor by John Naughton
12/05/2017

Neil MacGregor OM AO FSA, Inaugural Artistic Director of the Humboldt Forum, Berlin, and formerly Director of the British Museum, gave the tenth lecture in the series yesterday (11 May) to a full house. 

Neil MacGregor by John Naughton

The 2017 Lee Lecture explored themes which Neil MacGregor hopes to address in a forthcoming BBC Radio 4 series on Faith and Society, scheduled for this autumn, which will accompany an exhibition at the British Museum and tells the story of humankind’s search for meaning, and the role and expression of belief in the lives of communities around the world, over the last 40,000 years.

John Naughton, Emeritus Fellow, took this photo last night and comments, "Neil McGregor's topic was “State, Faith, Violence: case studies in the coercion of belief”, and it was a riveting and deeply depressing account of humanity’s capacity for persecution of ‘the other’. He’s a terrific lecturer, with an unhurried and enthralling style. But then, if you’ve heard or read his History of the World in a Hundred Objects, you will know that. I’m pleased with this portrait, which really captures him as he is."

 

News