Manchester Museum boss 'gobsmacked' over top European award

It contains Egyptian mummies and is the only place outside Panama where tiny variable harlequin toads can be found. And now the 138-year-old Manchester Museum has been named European museum of the year.

- Mark Brown

The institution won one of the most prestigious museum prizes in the world, with judges praising its approach to addressing its complex past and its extensive work with communities.

It is the first university museum to win the award, which was created in 1977, and the first UK museum since the Design Museum won in 2018.

The museum's director, Esme Ward, said it was a thrill to win, particularly after what had been a "truly grim" 30-hour trip to just get to the awards, this year held in the north-east Polish city of Białystok.

Ward was there with two colleagues and said they had been hopeful of perhaps winning the "belonging and inclusion" award. When they did not get that, they were feeling flat. "I'll be really frank: we genuinely didn't think the main award was ours."

Manchester was named winner from a shortlist of 42 museums. Ward said: "It's not often I'm lost for words, but we were gobsmacked."