Titian petition joins calls to save masterpieces

Published on Monday 10 November 2008 22:15

THE artist Tracey Emin took the campaign to save two works by the Renaissance master Titian to 10 Downing Street yesterday, warning of a national embarrassment if they were lost to "a Russian oligarch".

Emin handed a petition to Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, signed by 20 of the country's leading artists and calling on the government to recognise their importance to Britain's heritage even in "challenging times".

A campaign is under way to buy the two paintings, which have hung in the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) for more than 60 years, from their owner, the Duke of Sutherland.

He has offered to sell them to the nation for 50 million each, with a deadline of 31 December for the money to be raised to buy the first, Diana and Actaeon. Art experts call it a bargain-basement opportunity to stop the works going on the open market.

"It will be really embarrassing if the government doesn't buy them and they are bought by some Russian oligarch and never seen again," said Emin.

"If they don't buy these, how many other paintings will they allow to be lost to the nation?

"We are building an Olympics that we can't afford and can't maintain afterwards," added Emin, who staged a major retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art this year.

"This country seems hell-bent on supporting a war which is so ugly. Why can't we celebrate things that are really beautiful?"

The NGS director-general, John Leighton, said yesterday that a range of individuals and charitable trusts were now on board to raise funds for Diana and Actaeon. "We know that Scottish ministers will support us," he said.

"I think it is a reminder from a prominent artist to the head of the UK government that there are a lot of people looking for some leadership on this issue. Tracey, in her way, is saying: What can you do to help, Mr Brown?"

The art world has been unanimously behind the effort to buy the Titians, and not just artists such as Lucien Freud, Damien Hirst and David Hockney. The outspoken critic Norman Lebrecht says there are no arguments against it.

But there are some sceptics, particularly on the left. The former MEP Hugh Kerr called for Scotland to nationalise paintings it had looked after for 60 years rather than be "blackmailed" into doing so by "dubious landowners".

"We have had these paintings since 1945. We have looked after them, we have insured them, and they are part of Scotland's national heritage. Frankly, we should just nationalise them and take them into public ownership."

Others say the government should deny an export licence to block a sale to wealthy Russians or places like the United Arab Emirates, which have been spending massively building private and public collections.

Mr Leighton said the last nationalisation of art collections was in the Russian Revolution, adding: "I don't imagine there's many people proposing that as a model for the society we live in."

An export ban could actually see owners rapidly move paintings abroad, he said, and would contravene UK and European law.

Big names sign up to campaign

THE petition that Tracey Emin handed to No10 yesterday had the signatures of a huge variety of artists, from Gerhard Richter, the celebrated German painter at the centre of a major National Galleries of Scotland show, to the Turner Prize winners Mark Wallinger and Grayson Perry.

While it does not mention the paintings' price, it supports the campaign to save the works "which are among the finest works in private hands in the world, have been in Britain for more than two centuries, on continuous public view at the National Gallery of Scotland since the collection was placed there in 1945, inspiring generations of visitors".

It continues: "The high reputation currently being enjoyed by British art, both at home and abroad, depends on the extraordinary quality and depth of our national collections, which have always been, and remain, a constant stimulus to contemporary artists.

"We also believe that in challenging times, the heritage of the past and the art of the present are more important than ever."