Tate rejects Bacon scraps amid doubt over value and authenticity

THE Tate has offered to return Francis Bacon’s scraps of newspaper to his neighbour amid doubts over the collection once valued at £20 million.

Barry Joule, a friend and neighbour of Bacon, donated more than 1,000 artefacts from the artist’s London studio, including paint-spattered magazine clippings, scraps of paper and rags. The Tate has now offered to return the entire collection after experts cast doubts over its value to the gallery, and researchers questioned whether the few drawings among the mass of papers were made by Bacon himself.

A statement from the Tate said: “The entire gift has also been researched by art historians, and this research has raised credible doubts about the nature and quality of the material. The material does not lend itself to any significant exhibition and any potential it held to improve the public’s understanding of Bacon’s art has been exhausted. It has therefore been considered unsuitable for retention.”

Mr Joule lived next to Bacon’s Kensington studio and acted as a friend, chauffeur and handyman to the artist.

On Bacon’s death in 1992, Mr Joule came into possession of a vast collection of items from the studio and donated a large part of it to the Tate in 2004.

The collection of “material relating to Francis Bacon’s studio at 7 Reece Mews” comprises around 800 magazine and newspaper clippings, 39 photographs of Bacon and his friends, an album of sketches not believed to be by Bacon, and books and other documents.

Andrew Wilson, the Tate curator, was quoted last year as saying the markings made on scraps of paper may not have been by Bacon, and Sophie Pretorius, the Francis Bacon Estate’s archivist, wrote that studying the collection could constitute a “waste of resources”.

The Tate would ordinarily be bound by law to retain nationally important material, but can be rid of objects of no value to students or the public, and has offered to return the collection.

Mr Joule last year said he would “seek the complete return” of the Bacon materials donation if the items were not displayed by the Tate.

In April, Mr Joule pledged to donate further Bacon artefacts to the Centre Pompidou in Paris rather than the Tate and began negotiations to donate 150 drawings, 10 paintings, and record conversations.

Mr Joule has always maintained that the material he obtained is authentic.