Food, finance and the golden age of fraud

London, 2026: Opening at the Bank of England Museum, The Power of Honey: Food, Finance and the Golden Age of Fraud is a new interactive exhibition created and operated by Bompas & Parr, in association with the British Museum of Food, and sponsored by Visa and the City of London.

At the centre of the exhibition is the Bee-nomics Inspection Hive, a custom-built observation hive that brings living bees into the Bank of England Museum. Visitors are invited to watch the colony patrol, communicate, protect resources and respond to risk, transforming the hive into a vivid living model for the systems of vigilance that underpin both food supply chains and financial protection.

The exhibition opens at a moment when fraud is one of the defining challenges of contemporary life. From fake honey to financial scams, The Power of Honey reveals how deception works across the senses, the marketplace and everyday transactions, asking a simple question: if honey can be fake, what else can?

Through live bees, honey-smelling challenges, UV banknote investigations, historic food fraud, ancient artefacts and family trails, the exhibition explores how trust is built, protected and deceived. It draws unexpected connections between the symbolic role of the hive in the Bank of England’s visual language, the global trade in honey, and the behavioural systems used to detect suspicious activity in modern finance.

The Bee-nomics Inspection Hive will be managed by Bermondsey Street Bees, a multi-award-winning sustainable beekeeping practice. To protect the welfare of the bees, colonies will be rotated regularly throughout the exhibition, with each group spending only a few days in the museum before returning to their home apiary in London’s Royal Docks.

The Power of Honey will make the invisible mechanics of fraud tangible, visitor will have the opportunity to see trust being made in real time, test their own assumptions, and discover how cooperation, vigilance and shared belief shape the systems we rely on every day.

Visitor Information:
Venue: Bank of England Museum, Bartholomew Lane, London EC2R 8AH
Dates: 24 July – 28 August
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, with last entry at 4.30pm
Entry: Free

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