Scandalous... is among 678 Government
A PAINTING by one of Britain’s leading artists worth up to £300,000 is among hundreds of works that have gone missing from the Government Art Collection.
Turquoise Diagonal, a 1972 gouache painting by 87-year-old Bridget Riley, consists of diagonal lines surrounded by magenta and ochre colouring.
It is one of 678 artworks from the taxpayer-funded collection that have been lost, stolen, destroyed or looted, official records show.
Artist Charles Thomson said: “To lose one artwork may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose 678 looks like complete scandalous incompetence.”
Robert James, of Coram James Art and Antique Valuers, in London, said Riley’s work can sell for £300,000 and the total cost of the lost publiclyowned pieces could total £500,000.
He said: “The majority are relatively minor artists from the 19th and 20th centuries but there are some well known names on the list.
“One name that stands out is Bridget Riley who is represented by internationally-recognised galleries and one of our best known artists.
“Turquoise Diagonals appears to be a good example of her work from the early 1970s – similar works on paper have sold upwards of £150,000.
Vanish
“Accurately valuing the collection without seeing the works is impossible but the insurance value of the total could be up to £500,000.”
Last month the Daily Express revealed that the Government Art Collection (GAC) spent £306,781 on 35 pieces in 2016-17, most of which remain out of public sight.
A Freedom of Information request to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which manages the collection, revealed that almost five per cent of the GAC’s 14,000 drawings, paintings and prints are unaccounted for.
Other lost works include a 1797 oil painting entitled Harrier Killing a Bittern, by Philip Reinagle, and 10 pencil drawings by French artist Alfred d’Orsay.
Of the missing artworks, 63 were recorded as stolen, 17 destroyed or looted when British embassies have been attacked and seven recently reported missing.
The remaining 591 categorised as “lost”.
Artist Charles Thomson, who co-founded the Stuckism movement to oppose conceptual art in 1999, said: “Drawings and paintings don’t just were simply vanish into thin air. Henry Lamb’s World War Two oil painting of a Canadian soldier is 27 inches by 22 inches. It is not something you can put in your back pocket.
“It is so glaringly obvious that there should be proper accountability, proper records and proper valuation.
“I think the local chess club has probably got better records.”
Despite admitting it did not have recent valuations recorded for the works, the DCMS said most of the art was of “relatively low value”.
But Mr Thomson said: “Lamb’s last auction price was £7,000.
“Bridget Riley’s work is not low value. She’s one of the leading artists of the 20th century.
“A gouache by Bridget Riley is not