Holyrood's all art with £500,000 collection on display

Published on Friday 2 January 2009 09:09

SCOTTISH Parliament bosses have built up an art collection valued at more than £500,000.

An inventory of the parliament's assets lists 52 works of art with values ranging from just over 1000 to more than 30,000.

Ten are listed as "donated" but most have been bought by the parliament over the years.

And the parliament's art advisory group is now pressing for a dedicated budget to buy or commission more paintings, photographs and sculptures.

But Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald was surprised at how much had been spent on art.

"It's difficult to see where it has gone," she said. "Although there are some nice hangings, there are others where you feel someone maybe left them there until they could think of something to do with them and just forgot.

"However, I'm quite willing to accept beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

But Ms MacDonald said rather than buy more art, the parliament should explore the possibility of displaying paintings and other pieces currently kept in storage by galleries.

She said: "There is lots of art all over the place that we don't see and I would like to see it.

"That would give a nice mix in the parliament. We've got some modern artists. Why not use some of the stuff that's in storage and rotate it?"

The inventory of assets does not identify any of the individual works of art with their value, apart from the parliament's mace which is shown as the most valuable item at 37,982.

Next most valuable are two works of art at 29,280.

SNP Lothians MSP Ian McKee, who is a member of the Holyrood art advisory group, defended the parliament's investment in works of art.

He said: "I don't think 500,000 over ten years is excessive.

"All acquisitions are looked at very carefully, not just for quality, but for relevance."

And he said he hoped the parliament's corporate body would agree a budget for acquisitions.

At the moment any plan to buy new art has to go to the corporate body.

But Dr McKee argued if the art group had its own budget it could get a better deal at auctions.

He said: "If you wanted a painting by a contemporary Scottish artist and one was coming up in a sale you might get it cheaper than if you come along and say, 'we're from the Scottish Parliament and we'd like you to do a piece of work for us'."

&#149 The parliament has just launched specialist tours of the building's artworks. The hour-long tour is only available on Monday, Friday and Saturday afternoons for groups of 15-20. It costs the same as the normal guided tour – 5.85 full price, 3.50 concessions.