The Box museum CEO Victoria Pomery on displaying Joshua Reynolds' £50m Mai Portrait
- maxwell museums
- Mar 5
- 7 min read
The Box museum and gallery in Plymouth has a new exhibition centred around the sensational painting Portrait of Mai by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It's the £50m artwork's final public display before it heads to the USA for a number of years. Here I speak to The Box's CEO Victoria Pomery to discover more about the Journeys with Mai exhibition, and how and why it came about.
It’s your final chance to see one of the most expensive paintings ever bought by a UK museum.
Sir Joshua Reynolds’ 1776 work Portrait of Mai was sensationally acquired by the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in 2023 for an enormous £50m. After two years on show in London, it’s recently embarked on a tour of England. But this summer it will leave these shores.
That’s because the acquisition was a rare (albeit increasingly common) joint acquisition. At 7ft-tall, it depicts the first Polynesian man to visit Britain and was created when Reynold’s was at the height of his powers. The only way to meet the price tag was to split the cost, and so the NPG bought it jointly with the J. Paul Getty Trust.
It’s now America’s turn to marvel at Mai. From June, it will head to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and will remain in the USA for a number of years, including being shown during LA’s hosting of the 2028 Olympic Games.
Your final chance to see it here is at The Box in Plymouth. It’s just gone on display as part of a new exhibition that offers fresh context for the work.
It’s an appropriate location for its farewell, not least because the city is the birthplace of Reynolds. It’s one of the reasons the museum — which opened in 2020 after a £47m regeneration project to create a new home for the city’s collections — wanted to show the work as part of the national tour, as I find out in today’s interview.
Here I chat with The Box CEO Victoria Pomery to ask her about Plymouth’s connections to the portrait and the unique spin they’ve put on its display — as well as finding out about some of the vital considerations when displaying such a valuable artwork.
But we also chat about her new project leading Plymouth’s newly-announced bid for UK City of Culture, as well as her previous life turning Margate into Madonna’s favourite hangout. Yes, really!
This interview first appeared in the maxwell museums newsletter. Subscribe here
Hello Victoria! Firstly, why did The Box want to host Portrait of Mai?
We jumped at the chance to present Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai.
This is a national story with real local relevance to us. Reynolds was born in Plympton — now part of Plymouth — and had his first studio in Devonport (once a separate town, but now also part of the city). We have a significant number of paintings by Reynolds in the collections here. Mai — the first Polynesian to visit the UK — also came to Plymouth on two occasions in 1775 and 1776. The painting has links to Captain Cook too, and all three of his voyages started in Plymouth.
Each venue on the tour is presenting it in a unique way — how are you showing it?
We’ve chosen to focus on creating more context for the portrait, and to consider issues related to Plymouth’s histories of exploration, exchange, and encounter.
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In doing so, we’ve been able to illuminate aspects of Mai’s journey that could only be told here in Plymouth. Journeys with Mai has several different elements. There’s a section on what was happening in Plymouth in the 18th century when Mai visited. The portrait itself is displayed with items from The Box’s collections as well as material from other national collections, all of which consider the themes of colonial expansion and extraction.
We’ve also included some powerful contemporary art works by Lisa Reihana (New Zealand), Hinatea Colombani (Tahiti) and Mohini Chandra (UK) which explore and respond to the themes even further.
How did the loan come about from the National Portrait Gallery?
The Box (and prior to this, the former Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery) have a long-standing relationship with the NPG and we’ve collaborated several times before.
We had early conversations about the portrait with colleagues at the National Portrait Gallery before the painting had even been acquired. Once the portrait was acquired, the NPG announced the national tour and The Box was included.
The painting is worth over £50m. What are the considerations when putting an artwork of such value on show?
There are lots of considerations about showing art works and museum objects publicly.
Since opening in 2020, The Box has worked in partnership with a range of national and international institutions and collectors. We’re also an accredited museum and a National Portfolio Organisation funded by Arts Council England. The team who have worked on this exhibition (and indeed all our other exhibitions) includes specialist staff who have experience of dealing with many high profile shows and we have an internal project team who meet regularly during the lifespan of an exhibition project to discuss, plan and make decisions about matters such as insurance, transport, installation and deinstall, environmental conditions, marketing, engagement, events and budget.
Because we’ve worked with the NPG on several occasions, they were already aware of our spaces and know many of The Box team. For this exhibition, we also worked with an experienced exhibition designer who suggested having an aesthetic of a museum store. This is why most of the works and objects are displayed on a racking system. Portrait of Mai is the only work displayed directly onto the gallery wall to make it a focal point and create a sense of drama.
You personally are also leading Plymouth’s bid to be named UK City of Culture in 2029. Why should it win?
There are lots of reasons. The creative pitch for the city’s Expression of Interest (EOI) was developed following discussions and conversations with individuals, partners, businesses and the creative sector.
The EOI highlights that Plymouth is at a crossroads driven by investment in housing, defence and city centre redevelopment, and that UK City of Culture 2029 is an opportunity to empower, raise aspirations and unite communities here, across the South West and nationally.
Plymouth’s part in the wider national story will be shared to build a stronger and more cohesive future identify for the UK powered by people and creativity.
Writing on this website recently, Tony Butler, Director of Derby Museums, said that regional museums are in financial crisis. Are they?
The sector faces considerable challenges, and the world is changing fast, but I remain optimistic, I have to!
I believe we need to be ambitious and creative in our approach. Caring for collections, often in buildings not fit for purpose, requires substantial resources whilst funding for the sector is reducing given the challenges that most local authorities face.
At The Box, we’ve used funding from the Museum Renewal Fund to better understand our future resilience and sustainability and are putting measures in place which will support the organisation to continue to achieve its vision and mission.
Last year The Box celebrated its fifth anniversary, and you revealed that independent research showed it had provided a £28m contribution to the Plymouth economy thanks to visitors. Should museums shout about their specific economic value more?
I think museums need to demonstrate all areas of their impact, including economic and social.
It isn’t easy, but the more we can do to enable politicians, audiences, and the public to understand the role that we play in communities the better.
The report also highlighted the impact that The Box has had in delivering health and wellbeing benefits of £100 million, by engaging with audiences who have never visited a museum or gallery before.
What do the next five years look like for The Box?
We’ve got an ambitious programme in place and want to share more of the rich collections the city holds with our visitors.
We will continue to work with artists and audiences and to root our activity in place. We have a mantra which is to be ‘nationally known and locally loved’ and this drives our thinking together with our vision ‘to reimagine the future through the past’.
As a hybrid organisation (we’re a museum, art gallery, archive, research space and social space), we feel The Box has many strengths to bring to a city where the strategic priorities are around new housing, the government’s Defence Deal and 25,000 new jobs.
Finally, I must ask about Margate. It’s reputation as an art destination was absolutely sealed recently when Madonna visited and called it heaven. How much credit should you and the Turner Contemporary [Pomery was the gallery’s Founding Director until 2021] have in the re-energising the town?
Turner Contemporary was the catalyst for the regeneration of Margate.
When I first went there in 2002, I couldn’t then have imagined the transformation that has now happened in the town. Kent County Council and Arts Council England invested in the capital project and appointed David Chipperfield Architects.
The gallery became very successful in quite a short time — it built a strong brand and continues to deliver an ambitious programme. Many individuals have worked very hard over a long period of time to ensure the success of the gallery.
I’m proud of my time in Margate and am delighted to see how Turner Contemporary is thriving.
Journeys with Mai is open at The Box in Plymouth until 14 June 2026. Entry is free
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