Bare walls at The National
Gallery?
Recent reports predict that Britain could lose some of its most
important paintings following the revelation that three aristocratic English
families are planning to sell a collection of Old Masters.
The National Gallery in London is set to lose pictures on loan worth £200 million, including Poussin’s Sacraments and Titian’s Portrait of a Young Man.
Poussin’s Five Sacraments, owned by the Duke of Rutland’s family trust, have been on loan to The National Gallery since 2002. Their value is set at about £100 million and if a London gallery is unable to raise the money, there is the possibility that they will be bought by an overseas institution such as The National Gallery of Washington.
Securing these important masterpieces has taken priority over important, though slightly lesser works such as Alonso Sanchez Coello’s Portrait of Don Diego. At a cost of £2 million, The National gallery which would normally have tried to raise the money for this Spanish portrait, but given the current situation has not been able to consider it.
Once again our museums are faced with the problem of funding – they simply do not have the means to acquire such expensive works and channels of funding such as The National Heritage Memorial Fund are already overstretched, a situation set to worsen with spiralling Olympics costs.
As The National Gallery director, Charles Saumarez Smith stated, ‘It is a terrible situation. Without any state funding to support acquisitions, The National Gallery collection is unable to develop, and potentially could lose its position as one of the world’s premier collections of Western European art.’
Do we really need these paintings and can we justify purchasing them given their astronomical price? Are these paintings public heritage or private inheritance? Should the Duke of Rutland for example, be allowed to sell his Poussin’s overseas? What claim does France have on these works by a French artist?
Should the Gallery have a state-provided acquisition budget?
Or should the Government be expected to offer special exchequer grants in
extraordinary circumstances? Should the Government introduce tax
breaks to encourage lifetime giving to museums and galleries which would seek to
avoid the problems raised by long-term loans?
Add your voice to the debate...
Topic posted: 12 July 2007.
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