Stuff the British Stole reveals all – live on tour
Marc Fennell’s Stuff the British Stole – podcast, TV series and now a book – is a runaway success, so he’s about to do a tell-all stage show on the subject.
Marc Fennell hopes one day he’ll be nabbed and tossed out of the British Museum in London. He is, after all, the creator of the podcast, television series and the soon-to-be released book Stuff the British Stole. His work explores the dodgy provenance of some of the things you will see at that famous museum and many others.
The third series will be screened on ABC-TV this year and his book is out in June, which is when he will be touring the country to celebrate with An Evening with Marc Fennell: Stuff the British Stole, a kind of victory lap, if you will.
Fennell, 40, will take to the stage to share insights and stories from behind-the-scenes while shooting and researching the acclaimed series.
“Filming this show has taken me around the world in pursuit of stolen objects and very questionable decisions,” Fennell says. “The live show is where I finally get to tell the stories we definitely couldn’t fit into broadcast.”
The fact that he tells stories that some museums might not want people to hear makes him wonder if he will ever be accosted, particularly at the British Museum.
“Every time I walk in there, I hope somebody stops me,” he says. “I’d love that.”
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It would be exciting, but it hasn’t happened yet, even though he lays out a good case for the return of the famous Parthenon or Elgin Marbles. That is probably the most sensational case of one country (Greece) asking another country (the UK) to return what it deems to be looted treasures. He deals with that in the chapter called Marbles, which is where I first landed reading an uncorrected proof of his forthcoming book. It’s a far more ripping yarn than any of us could have imagined.
The book allows him to flesh out the stories a bit more, diving deeper. Fennell has a straightforward no-nonsense approach and if you want to see him live, book early, because this sort of nerdy fare is hugely popular now. One of his idols, the writer William Dalrymple, whose specialty subject is India, has a hot podcast, too, and he has sold-out at Brisbane Powerhouse a couple of times recently. Rock star historians such as Bettany Hughes and Mary Beard have done the same at the venue.
Audiences will gain rare insight into the untold stories behind his global travels
Fennell is working in the same territory, subject wise, and is appearing at Brisbane Powerhouse on June 28 before touring to Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
In this special live, in-conversation event he will bring his natural narrative flair to the stage. Audiences will gain rare insight into the untold stories behind his global travels (they are extensive), journeys undertaken while filming the television series and researching its subjects. From widely celebrated artefacts to lesser-known objects with deep personal histories, he illuminates both the iconic and the overlooked – revealing the human stories behind them and the communities from which they were taken.
British museums are home to millions of fascinating objects. The trouble is a whole bunch of them were stolen in wildly dodgy ways. A chance encounter with one of these items (a mechanical tiger/music box that mauls a soldier when you turn a handle) prompted journalist Fennell to ask: “What is that? And how the hell did it get here?”
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The answer was so gloriously weird that it sent Fennell on his globetrotting adventure, investigating what he tends to regard as the most audacious criminal enterprise in history – the British Empire. Those of us who are part British (including yours truly) can feel a bit uncomfortable about this at times and that’s okay, he says. Because he is a bit British, too, as well as having heritage across several other countries.
With wit, empathy and unflinching honesty, Stuff the British Stole reveals the uncomfortably true stories behind remarkable objects in the world’s most celebrated museums. These artefacts tell the stories of power, resistance and survival that have shaped our modern world.
Travelling from the pyramids of Egypt to the beaches where Captain Cook first landed, from Tuscan marble quarries to Kenyan torture chambers, Fennell uncovers the uncomfortable truths hidden behind the plaques. (Museums call them labels but he is a rebel and insists on plaques.) He digs into the human stories museums would rather we didn’t talk about.
The book Stuff the British Stole will be released by Penguin Books on June 23. Part travelogue, part true crime, part reckoning with history, this is a book about how the hell we got here. So, it is history with a point.
Fennell admits the title is incendiary but points out that when people listen to his podcast, watch his programs and when they read his book they will find it’s not black-and-white at all. There are shades of grey and nuances that ask questions rather than make pronouncements about things.
He confesses to enjoying making museum curators wince and often museums refuse to talk to him
“The title is a double-dyed sword, but it made it a hit,” he says. “I don’t need anybody to agree or disagree with me, that’s not why I’m doing it. And people think I want all objects I find in museums to be returned, but I don’t.”
He confesses to enjoying making museum curators wince and often museums refuse to talk to him, but he has not had his collar felt yet or been thrown out even though he would like to. He loves the journey he’s on and the new series ranges across eight countries. But while he loves the whole adventure there is a downside – spending extended periods away from his wife and two kids.
“I don’t think I could have predicted how big this got,” he says. “It all started with me and a microphone and then suddenly I’m standing in front of the pyramids or in the Amazon. It has become this huge part of my life now. I am Indiana Jones in reverse. He went around saying, this should be in a museum.”
Fennell often suggests quite the opposite.
An Evening with Marc Fennell: Stuff the British Stole, Brisbane Powerhouse, June 28, 6.30pm.
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