V&A Museum spurns offer of Maggie’s frocks
MARGARET Thatcher’s collection of clothes and mementoes is to be sold off piece by piece – after an offer to the Victoria and Albert Museum to display it for the nation was rejected.
Her family offered hundreds of items – from her wedding dress to her red prime ministerial dispatch box – to the London institution for display to the general public.
Sir Mark and Carol Thatcher instructed Christie’s to offer the collection to the V&A so it could be kept together rather than scattered among admirers around the world.
But the museum, whose director is Martin Roth, a trustee of the British Council, turned down the offer on the basis that it collects only items of ‘outstanding aesthetic or technical quality’ rather than those with ‘intrinsic social historical value’, the Daily Telegraph reported.
‘The V&A politely declined the offer of Baroness Thatcher’s clothes, feeling that these records of Britain’s political history were best suited to another collection which would focus on their intrinsic social historical value’, a spokesman for the museum told the newspaper. ‘The Museum is responsible for chronicling fashionable dress and its collecting policy tends to focus on acquiring examples of outstanding aesthetic or technical quality.’
The former Conservative prime minister’s wardrobe, including her famous power suits, handbags and jewellery will be auctioned with the proceeds split among her children.
A spokesman for Christie’s auction house described the collection as ‘present [ing] unique opportunities, across price levels, for collectors around the world to acquire property from the longest serving prime minister of the United Kingdom in the 20th century and the only woman to have held the office to date.’
The striking jade green wool suit worn by Lady Thatcher when she was confirmed as Tory leader in February 1975 fetched £25,000 at auction three years ago. It was one of seven outfits under the hammer at a Christie’s sale which attracted collectors from as far as South Korea.
An Asprey handbag she clutched in an important meeting with political soul-mate Ronald Reagan sold for £25,000 at a charity auction.
But with renewed interest in Baroness Thatcher’s legacy following Charles Moore’s multivolume biography, prices at the upcoming sale are expected to comfortably outstrip those previously achieved.
Sir Mark and Carol Thatcher could not be contacted to ask why they did not approach another museum to house the collection.