On 23 September 2025, a milestone of sculpture scholarship will be reached by the publication of a catalogue of 1,800 works of European Sculpture in the Royal Collection. To mark the appearance of this major new work in four volumes, the author Jonathan Marsden (former Director of the Royal Collection) will speak about the Collection with John Chu, Senior Curator of Pictures and Sculpture for the National Trust. Ranging in date from the late 15th to the late 20th centuries and incorporating works from Britain and continental Europe in bronze, marble and other materials, both the Royal Collection and those of the National Trust are spread across multiple sites. Formed by the tastes of numerous individuals through several centuries, in what ways can they truly be called collections? How has sculpture most impacted the royal palaces and the great houses of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at different periods? The creation of the catalogue has taken place over 27 years involving fieldwork, scientific examination, photography, conservation and archival research, notably in the collection of artists’ papers in the Library of the HMI. The event will also address the challenges faced by curators and institutions in documenting and publishing collections on such a scale today, and explore the public benefits that flow from such endeavours.
Jonathan Marsden was Surveyor of The Queen’s Works of Art and Director of The Royal Collection from 2010 to 2017, having previously served as Deputy Surveyor since 1996. Prior to that he worked as a curator for the National Trust in North Wales and Oxfordshire. He has served as a trustee of several arts and heritage organisations including Historic Royal Palaces, English Heritage, the Art Fund, the City & Guilds of London Art School. He is a Commissioner of Historic England. His catalogue of European Sculpture in the Collection of His Majesty The King will be published in four volumes on 23 September by Modern Art Press and Royal Collection Trust.
Dr John Chu is a Senior Curator at the National Trust. He leads on public engagement, research and development across all the organisation’s historic fine art collections. These include over 6,500 sculptures, from 5th-century Greek fragments to newly commissioned contemporary works. His research background is in painting and collecting in the long eighteenth century, having completed his doctorate on the British fancy picture. More recently, he has led research into private, domestic collections of 20th-century modern art and their transition into heritage.
