LONDON.- The British Museum announced five new members from the worlds of history, academia, broadcasting and journalism are to join its Board of Trustees.

The five new appointments are Lord Daniel Finkelstein OBE, Tom Holland, Dr Tiffany Jenkins, Martha Kearney and Claudia Winkleman.

The new Trustees will take up their roles immediately and will attend their first meetings as Trustees this month.

The British Museum Board comprises up to 25 members, 15 of which are appointed by the Prime Minister. These appointments come from that allocation.

George Osborne, Chair of the British Museum Trustees, said: 'I'm delighted that this all-star collection of thinkers and communicators are becoming Trustees. It says something about the excitement and momentum at the Museum right now that we can attract such talented people to become part of our team.'

Lord Daniel Finkelstein OBE said: 'The British Museum has been an important part of my life since my Dad took me when I was very young. Queuing for the Tutankhamun exhibition remains one of the strongest memories of my childhood. And I have loved it ever since. I am thrilled to be a Trustee. I believe deeply that you can map civilisations through artefacts.'

Tom Holland said: 'This is a museum I have been visiting ever since my eighth birthday, and the sense of wonder and excitement I felt then is no less vivid now. To serve the British Museum as a Trustee is both an honour and a dream come true.'

Dr Tiffany Jenkins said: 'I am honoured to support the British Museum as a Trustee, especially during this pivotal time in its history. Having admired its exceptional collections and ethos for decades, I look forward to contributing to its continued success.'

Martha Kearney said: 'My childhood visits to the British Museum have inspired a lifetime of exploring ancient places around the world. The British Museum is literally my happy place. I am so proud to become a Trustee and have the chance to contribute to a museum that I love.'

Claudia Winkleman said: 'The British Museum has been an integral part of my life since childhood: weekly trips with my father segueing to days of study through my university years and now regular visits with my own children. Its impact on me, mirrored in the experiences of hundreds of thousands of people every year.

'The Museum's role in the cultural fabric of our country is unparalleled, its ability to educate through beauty and wonder, to connect us to humanity's shared past is unrivalled. I am deeply honoured to join the Museum's Board of Trustees and hope that I can in some small way help it to continue its mission to curate, conserve and explain our history for the benefit and education of all.'

Lord Daniel Finkelstein OBE is a member of the House of Lords, a writer, and a columnist for The Times newspaper. He has previously been its Executive Editor and Chief Leader Writer. He is the author of the award-winning bestselling book Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival (2023). He is a patron of the Wiener Holocaust Library. His writing is mainly on political and social affairs, although he is also well known for his football column, the Fink Tank, which ran for 17 years. He has won multiple awards, including being named political commentator of the year four times. He is well known to viewers of programmes like Newsnight and Politics Live and to listeners of Radio 4's News Quiz. Lord Finkelstein is also a member of the Board of directors of Chelsea Football Club. During his career he has provided political advice to prime minister John Major and, as director of policy, to William Hague as opposition leader. In August 2020 he published Everything in Moderation, a collection of his writing. His family memoir was published in June 2023. He was awarded the OBE for services to the prime minister in 1997 and made a member of the House of Lords in 2013. Lord Finkelstein is the son of Mirjam Wiener, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen and a grandson of the holocaust archivist Alfred Wiener. His father Ludwik survived Soviet exile to Siberia.

Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, translator and broadcaster. He has written books about the Graeco-Persian wars; Roman history from the fall of the Republic to the age of Hadrian; empire and religion in late antiquity; Anglo-Saxon England; 11th century Latin Christendom; and the evolution and impact on the world of Christianity. He has translated Herodotus and Suetonius for Penguin Classics. He is co-presenter of the world's most popular history podcast, The Rest is History. He has written and presented numerous TV documentaries, on subjects ranging from the Islamic State to dinosaurs. He is also a Trustee of the British Library, an honorary fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, and has been described in The Times as 'a leading English cricketer'.

Dr Tiffany Jenkins is an author and an academic. She will release her latest book Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life in May 2025. She is also the author of Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended up in Museums and Why They Should Keep Them (2016) and Contesting Human Remains in Museum Collections: The Crisis of Cultural Authority (2010). Additionally, she edited the collection Political Culture: Soft Interventions and Nation Building (2014). Dr Jenkins has held positions as an honorary fellow in the History of Art at the University of Edinburgh and as a visiting fellow in the Department of Law at the London School of Economics. Her broadcasting contributions include presenting the series A History of Secrecy; Contracts of Silence – which examines the rise of non-disclosure agreements; and Beauty and the Brain: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us About Art for BBC Radio 4. She has frequently appeared as a critic on Radio 4's Saturday Review and Front Row. Her opinion pieces have been featured in the Observer, Financial Times, the Spectator, and the Scotsman, where she was a weekly opinion columnist.

Martha Kearney is a journalist and broadcaster. She has presented the BBC's Today programme, The World at One, Woman's Hour and Newsnight Review. As well as being Political Editor of Newsnight, she reported from Northern Ireland for many years and has had many overseas assignments including several trips to Afghanistan. Born in Dublin in 1957, Kearney was educated in Edinburgh and at Oxford University where she studied classics. Archaeology remains a lifelong passion. After leaving Today in 2024 Kearney has launched a new interview series for BBC Radio Four called This Natural Life.

Claudia Winkleman was born in London in 1972. As a child she went to the National Gallery and the British Museum almost every Saturday morning with her father, igniting a passion which eventually led her to study History of Art at Cambridge University in 1993. After graduation, Winkleman went on to work in television and radio and has done so for the past 30 years. She has hosted shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, The Traitors, The Piano and The Great British Sewing Bee. Winkleman hosted the Radio 2 Arts Show for six years before hosting her eponymous show every Saturday morning at 10.00. In 2023 she won the BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance. Winkleman has written weekly columns for The Independent and The Sunday Times and continues to write for The Times. She is a Trustee for Comic Relief, a patron for Child Bereavement UK, and an Ambassador for The King's Trust. Winkleman lives in London with her family.