Maria Balshaw Warns Tourist-Only Museum Fees Would Send the Wrong Message as Tate Succession Nears
As the UK revisits how to fund its national museums, Maria Balshaw, the director of Tate, has publicly opposed proposals to introduce admission charges for overseas visitors — arguing that the policy would be both practically fraught and symbolically damaging for institutions built on global collections.
Balshaw, who steps down this month after nine years in the role, told The Financial Times that charging international visitors would be particularly uncomfortable at museums such as the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). “The British Museum and the V&A, in particular, hold the best of many other nations’ art and culture,” she said. “What does it say to people from the rest of the world if we say, ‘We’ve got your stuff, but we’re going to charge you to come in’? I don’t like that idea.”
Her comments arrive amid renewed political interest in a two-tier admissions model, in which UK residents would continue to enter for free while tourists would pay. Supporters argue that international visitors represent a potential revenue stream for institutions facing rising costs and constrained public funding.
But critics have warned that the approach risks colliding with the ethical and diplomatic sensitivities embedded in Britain’s museum holdings. A report published last year by the Cultural Policy Unit, an independent UK think tank, concluded that charging overseas visitors at national museums would be “logistically complex as well as ideologically at odds with the global collections that the UK has accumulated.”
The report pointed to the British Museum as a case study in the policy’s potential contradictions: a fee structure could place the institution in the position of charging Nigerian tourists to see the Benin Bronzes, or Egyptian visitors to view the Rosetta Stone — objects that sit at the center of long-running debates about ownership, restitution, and the legacies of empire.
Despite those concerns, the idea continues to circulate in policy circles. In a recent review of Arts Council England, Labour peer Margaret Hodge suggested the UK government should consider introducing admission charges for international visitors via an ID card system.
Balshaw has instead advocated for a broader “tourist tax,” with a clear cultural earmark. She told the Financial Times that at least 80% of any revenue raised should be ring-fenced for the culture sector, helping to sustain free admission not only in London but also for museums across the regions.
Beyond admissions, Balshaw also urged the government to consider tax breaks for donors as a way to strengthen museum finances over the long term, particularly through endowments. “A modest tax incentive for endowment giving would not be unaffordable, and it would be transformational,” she said.
Tate’s own endowment effort offers a snapshot of the scale institutions are trying to build. The Tate’s Future Fund, launched last year at £43m, has since grown to £55m, with a target of £150m by 2030.
Balshaw’s departure also sharpens attention on Tate’s next chapter. Her successor is expected to be announced this summer. Names reported to be under consideration include Jessica Morgan, the director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York, and Karin Hindsbo, Tate’s interim director and former director of Tate Modern.
A source close to Tate trustees told the Financial Times that the next director will need to be “very close to artists and very close to donors,” while also able to “constantly plan for shocks and disappointments while planning to thrill and educate.” In a moment when museum funding models are under scrutiny, that balance — between public mission, private support, and political reality — may define the job as much as the exhibitions themselves.
