Dali won’t be ‘flogged off’ to meet cost of equal pay deal
GLASGOW City Council will not be selling its famous Salvador Dali painting to cover a bill for equal pay settlements.
Council leader Susan Aitken said it is not being considered and the sale of assets is not in the council’s thinking as it faces a bill of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Ms Aitken, in a radio interview, said the council expects to reach settlement with the women, unions and legal representatives to be able to start paying out on the claims in the next financial year.
She criticised her Labour predecessors for leaving others to deal with it but couldn’t put a figure on the total bill.
Ms Aitken said a range of options were open to the council.
However, she said: “We are not discussing flogging off the Dali.”
The famous Christ of St John on the Cross painting, which now hangs in Kelvingrove Art Gallery, was bought from the surrealist artist by the then Glasgow Corporation for £8000 in 1951.
Ms Aitken said the council could consider borrowing or maximizing income in order to meet the bill without selling assets and minimising the impact on council services.
The council, under Ms Aitken, abandoned the long-running legal challenges to the court rulings to pay out to thousands of women.
She said she was landed with a problem by the previous Labour administration, who she said should have dealt with the matter 10 years ago.
She said: “Our predecessors ‘wussed’ out and kicked it done the road on to the next person. I am the next person. We will deliver the settlement women in Glasgow who have been denied justice in the past, deserve.”
While unable to state how much would be paid out, she said figures of between half a billion to one billion pounds were not accurate.
She said they had been “plucked out of thin air”.
When told it was a figure given by a QC representing some of the women, she said: “He has plucked it out of thin air”.
The council has agreed a timetable of talks with those representing the claimants until the end of this year.
The Evening Time reported concerns by the Accounts Commission that the settlement will have serious implications for the council budget.
Without considering the equal pay bill the council will have a spending gap of £129.1m over the next three years.
The Accounts Commission report stated: “This means it faces a period of unprecedented financial pressures.”