Quick-fix sale of painting may result in penalties

- Barack Obama announcing the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats over the alleged Moscow cyber attack on the US presidential election. How the Russian embassy in London described President Obama, by insinuation over the row accusing Moscow of interfering in the US election campaign. THESE are challenging and difficult times for local authorities like Kirklees which have to meet the increasing costs of social care and children’s services while their budgets are being slashed.

It is therefore hardly surprising that cash-strapped but heritage asset-rich Kirklees should consider selling one or more works from its art collection which has been built up over the last hundred years.

At the same time, Russian oligarchs and Chinese entrepreneurs need to find something with which to cover the walls of their Mayfair mansions and Hong Kong penthouses – preferably something which grows in value.

The newly rich have helped to create the current market which has seen the price of some paintings and sculptures rise faster than other forms of investment.

Owning a Francis Bacon also carries with it a certain cache which Britain’s 19th century industrialists understood, putting their wealth into landed estates and Old Master paintings. Theirs was a social rather than a financial investment and their legacy were the public art galleries and collections to be enjoyed in towns and cities the length and breadth of these islands.

While the Kirklees collections did not come about as the result of a large single donation, wealthy individuals like members of the Austin and Crawshaw dynasties, who willed works of art to enhance Dewsbury Town Hall, helped start what has become an important cultural asset.

Others followed their example, including artists who have donated their own work. More recently, Kirklees and its predecessors, with the assistance of various funding bodies, became patrons themselves, buying and commissioning art for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of local people.

Figure Study II Was offered to the Bagshaw Museum by the Contemporary Art Society and accepted into the collection by Batley Corporation.