[MSN] Council can't afford to insure its Gainsboroughs

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Council can't afford to insure its Gainsboroughs
A multi-million-pound collection of paintings that includes works by Constable and Gainsborough is lying uninsured because a local authority has decided it cannot afford the premium, writes Richard Brooks.

The works, housed at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, Suffolk, and owned by Ipswich council, form the most significant collection of the two artists’ paintings outside London.

The disclosure in next month’s issue of The Art Newspaper raises concerns that councils are giving such low priority to heritage that some parts of the country may become “cultural deserts”. While councils must meet the cost of insuring art collections from their resources, national collections such as the British Museum and the Tate are indemnified by the government.

Tim Heyburn, the council’s head of museums, said the annual premium of about £40,000 to cover its collection of over 15,000 works would have been “too costly”. He said: “It was decided by the local authority to put the money not used on insurance into other aspects of our galleries.” The council is now considering a cut-price option to cover just its Constables and Gainsboroughs.

The uninsured Ipswich paintings include 15 by Thomas Gainsborough and nine by John Constable, both of whom had strong links with Suffolk. Among the best-known Constables are pictures of the kitchen and gardens of his father, Golding Constable. The Gainsboroughs include a portrait of William Wollaston and another of Mrs Bedingfield and Her Daughter.

Other artists in the collection whose paintings are no longer insured against hazards such as fire and theft include George Frost, who strongly influenced Constable, and Sir Alfred Munnings, the equestrian artist.

It is increasingly common for galleries not to insure their holdings because of rising premiums and because the works are deemed to be irreplaceable.

Two years ago, when millions of pounds of contemporary works by artists such as Tracey Emin and the Chapman brothers were lost in a warehouse fire in east London, it emerged that many were uninsured.

According to a forthcoming report, more than 80% of Britain’s 150,000 paintings in public collections are kept in storage.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/