Everyone should be able to get a taste of Bacon

WAVING goodbye to my friend Tony after an enjoyable curry with friends, I gave him no further thought until another pal told me he was in hospital on Christmas Eve.

The next day I dashed up to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary full of turkey and Christmas pudding.

He was told he couldn’t eat anything as he needed an endoscopy, but his eyes brightened when it was decided he could have a lamb curry after all.

His joy was shortlived, however, when another patient snaffled it and a mortified nurse brought him an egg sandwich. OUR story about whether Kirklees Council should sell its 1940s painting by Francis Bacon generated intense debate.

At least one national newspaper, The Guardian, reported on it at some length.

Because Figure Study II is so valuable with a potential price tag of getting on for £60 million it tends to be only exhibited locally.

But the real sadness of the story to me was the line that because of this it “spends the majority of its life in storage”.

This does not seem like a sensible way to treat a great piece of art. If Kirklees cannot afford to put it on show that is fair enough.

But for it to spend decades languishing in some vault does not appear to me to be an intelligent way of marshalling our resources.

Far better for it to be sold to a wealthy collector or for it to be loaned out permanently to one of the major galleries so art lovers can appreciate its point.

And it seems a curious state of affairs when Kirklees is closing several of its museums as part of budget cutbacks for it to have such an item hidden away that no-one can see.