Gun control
The British government-appointed Reviewing Committee for the Export of Works of Art (RCEWA) is intent on holding on to ‘the best stuff ’ - and that’s not okay, writes Lucien de Guise
the noise is coming from the dispossessed who want their heritage back for free. The most voluble at the moment are Easter Island and Nigeria, with the chorus always provided by Greece.
At a time when the UK should be trying its hardest to export anything that the rest of the world wants, it is holding back on the best stuff. The argument for hoarding what the RCEWA calls “national treasures” becomes even less credible when you have observed the system at work. Everything hinges on the “Waverley Criteria”, as defined in 1952. There are three of them, namely:
1.Is the item closely connected with our history and national life?
2.Is it of outstanding aesthetic importance? Cornwallis receiving the two sons of Tipu Sultan.
3.Is it of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history?
If a would-be export meets any of the three, it might be detained in Britain. Only one of the three relates to what is quaintly called “our” history and national life. The criteria were born, after all, just one year after the Festival of Britain, which sought to show the brilliance of Britain without participation from the Commonwealth. The flame of xenophobia has been nurtured by Theresa May, who last year proposed a post-Brexit “Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.
The other two Waverley Criteria are such banal generalisations, it’s a wonder Lord
Waverley was prepared to put his name to them. This distinguished public servant had been a relatively benign Governor of Bengal some years before his criteria were established in 1952.
By coincidence, the item under discussion also spent some time in India. It was made there in 1793 to 1794 and was a favourite sporting gun of Tipu Sultan, a name that always causes merriment among bahasa Melayu speakers.
The ruler of Mysore may not always have spoken the truth, but he was undoubtedly a fearsome opponent of the British in India. When he died at the Siege of Seringapatam