The British Council is considering selling off its £200 million art collection due to debts incurred during the COVID crisis. Over the last few years, mounting financial challenges have left the organisation struggling.
The Council, which promotes British culture, art, and education worldwide, grapple with a £197 million debt following a £250 million emergency loan from the government during the pandemic.
The Council says the loan has strained its finances because of steep interest rates on its £14 million per annum loan. An insider told Artlyst the Council’s poor credit rating is ‘worrying’.
The Council’s art collection, an acclaimed repository featuring works by luminaries such as Henry Moore, Tracey Emin and David Hockney, could be auctioned this spring. Pieces considered threat include Lucian Freud’s Girl with Roses (1947), a Duncan Grant painting of the Bloomsbury group’s Sussex home, and Damien Hirst’s 1994 dot painting.
Half of the collection’s 9,000 pieces are protected by agreements prohibiting their sale, as artists and collectors donated many under such conditions. However, the remaining works could be sold to ease Council’s financial woes.
Scott McDonald, chairman of the British Council Chief Executive, acknowledged the severity of the situation by saying that everything it has, which is not much more, is being looked at as we look for potential purchasers. The spokesperson for the British Council underscored the urgency of government intervention by warning: “A British Council that is in retreat is a blow to the UK in the competition for influence on the world stage.” Its work reaches nearly 600 million people a year.
The Council has undergone a significant downsizing, with hundreds of members laid off in recent years. The pandemic also had a profound impact on communities struggling with economic difficulties.
Critics fear that selling the collection would endanger the Council’s 90-year legacy of promoting cross-cultural connections, an impediment to the growing cultural community. Last year, it was announced that the British Council was looking for a permanent home to house the collection and put it on public view.
Michael Ellis, shadow culture minister, called for urgent action to secure the Council’s future. … The crisis highlights a decade of declining government support for one of our most vital cultural institutions. As the British Council faces a grim financial landscape with a grim financial landscape, its celebrated art collection could be lost forever. For many, the potential loss underscores the broader challenges facing the UK’s cultural institutions during economic uncertainty.
Since 1938, the British Council has been collecting works of art, craft and design to promote the achievements of the best British artists, craft practitioners and designers abroad. The Collection has nearly 9,000 artworks by over 1,500 artists and has presented exhibitions in more than 110 countries.
Planning is underway for the Collection to move to a new home in Coventry, part of a new Cultural Gateway Centre, which will also house the Arts Council Collection, Culture Coventry Trust and Coventry University. This will secure the future of the British Council Collection and establish it as a leading educational and exhibition resource for international talent.
The British Council has played a defining role in the careers of numerous British artists, giving many their first opportunity to travel and exhibit internationally.
