Maialen Maugars

Thesis title: Collecting early modern decorative art for late nineteenth-century Birmingham.

Supervisors: Prof. Louise Bourdua and Prof. Rosie Dias (University of Warwick); Dr. Rebecca Bridgman and Victoria Osborne (formerly Birmingham Museums Trust).

My PhD was the result of a Collaborative Doctoral Award project between the University of Warwick and Birmingham Museums Trust, funded by Midlands4Cities and the Art and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Doctoral research:

My doctoral dissertation, successfully defended in May 2025, focused on the early modern Italian decorative arts collection at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG). The collection is constituted of 378 objects, mainly purchased in Italy by John Charles Robinson (1824-1913) and Whitworth Wallis (1855-1927) between 1881 and 1889. It was one of the first collections to be acquired for and displayed at BMAG when it opened in 1885. The collection, which includes furniture, metalwork, textiles, ceramics and glass objects, was intended to educate and inspire Birmingham's artisans, industrial designers, and art students. This thesis had several aims: to examine BMAG's collecting strategy; to study Robinson's and Wallis's acquisition practices; to investigate the provenance of the collection, including the export of these objects from Italy to Britain; and to analyse the collection's display, reception, and impact on artistic training and industrial design in late nineteenth-century Birmingham.

Research interests: History of Collecting; Provenance research; Museum formation; Nineteenth-century art market; Decorative arts; Material culture.

Contact: maialen.maugars@warwick.ac.uk (maialen.maugars@outlook.com from August 2026).

https://www.midlands4cities.ac.uk/student_profile/maialen-maugars/Link opens in a new window

Find me on Academia.eduLink opens in a new window 

Publications:

" 'A treasure house of examples for reference and for instruction': Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s impact on late nineteenth-century Artistic Training and Industrial Design', Midlands in Midlands Art Papers 9 (2026) https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/projects/midlands-art-papers/issue-9/a-treasure-house-of-examples-for-reference-and-for-instructionLink opens in a new window

Presentations (selection):

• '"A treasure house for reference and instruction": innovation, progression, and accessiblity at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery,' Re-exhibiting the museum: new perspectives on nineteenth-century exhibition, collection, and displayLink opens in a new window, Birmingham, 12 November 2025 (co-organiser)
• 'Collecting Italian Renaissance art for the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1881-1889', International symposium: The Commerce and Circulation of the Decorative Arts: Auctions, Dealers, Collectors and Museums, Lyon, 25-27 September 2024.
• 'Exhibiting Italian Renaissance decorative art in nineteenth-century Birmingham: significance, display, reception', 70th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, 21-24 March 2024.

Outreach:

• ‘140 Years in a 140 objects: treasures from the Italian decorative arts collection’ (November 2025)
• Museums Exploration Podcast: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery with Andrea Bonnell and Maialen Maugars (November 2025)
• 'Fakes, Forgeries, and the nineteenth-century Italian art market' (guest speaker, Solihull History of Art Society, February 2025).
• ‘Let there be light: Re-Opening Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’, Birmingham Museums blog (November 2024)
• History of Art @ 50 (co-curator). Exhibition celebrating the History of Art department's 50th anniversary, displayed in the Faculty of Art building from October 2024 until July 2025.
• 'Collecting Italian Renaissance decorative art for late nineteenth-century Birmingham' (guest speaker, Solihull History of Art Society, February 2024).
• 'Birmingham's Italian Renaissance Decorative Art collection: composition, acquisition, reception' (guest speaker, Birmingham Museums Trust All Staff meeting, September 2022).

Teaching:

• 2025-2026 (Term 1): 'Renaissance Ecologies' (RS201 & RS301), Centre for the Study of the Renaissance
• 2025-2026 (Term 1): 'Making of the Modern World' (HI153), History department
• 2024-2025 (Term 2): 'Fakes and Forgeries' (HA1B6), History of Art department
• 2023-2024 (Term 2): 'Renaissance Europe II: Arts, Culture, and Knowledge of the Renaissance' (RS200 & RS300), Centre for the Study of the Renaissance

Background:

• 2017-2018: MA in Art History, Curatorship, and Renaissance Culture (Warburg Institute)
• 2013-2016: BA in History (UCL)