My Art News: Sale of the century: UK gets art collection for 80% off

2008年2月27日星期三

Sale of the century: UK gets art collection for 80% off

· Donation could fill floor and a half of Tate Modern
· Bequest ranks among those by Samuel Courtauld and Henry Tate

Mark Brown, arts correspondent
Wednesday February 27, 2008
guardian.co.uk

An act of artistic philanthropy on a par with Britain's greatest - including bequests by Samuel Courtauld and Henry Tate - was unveiled today in a move that will see 725 works of postwar and contemporary art donated to the nation.

The London dealer Anthony d'Offay is giving over almost his entire collection - now conservatively valued at £125m - for the price he paid originally. The collection contains some of the finest works by the most important artists of the last 50 years, including Joseph Beuys, Gilbert and George, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst. It will be called Artist Rooms and it will be jointly owned and managed for the nation by the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate.

The scale of the donation is remarkable: enough art to easily fill a floor and a half of London's Tate Modern. Artist Rooms will take the form of 50 rooms of contemporary art by 25 artists, with the intention that they will be seen across the UK and not just in London and Edinburgh. The first partners will include galleries as far apart as Inverness, Bexhill and Cardiff.

D'Offay is offering the art at the original price paid rather than its current value. That amounts to almost £28m with £10m each being paid by the British government and the Scottish government. The remaining £8m will come from the Art Fund (£1m) and National Heritage Memorial Fund (£7m).

"He is making a loss," said the Tate's director Nicholas Serota. "It is one of the most generous gifts that has ever been made to museums in this country. Anthony's concept has always been to try and show artists in depth. That's how he has collected and that's how he would like this gift to be seen. A gift of this magnitude will completely transform the opportunity to experience contemporary art in the UK."

D'Offay told the Guardian the idea of Artist Rooms had been seven years in the planning. "It's really to do with education for young people. Outside London and Edinburgh it is very difficult to see great contemporary art. I was born in Sheffield and brought up in Leicester and I was very conscious that what I could see in museums was 18th-century portraits, Egyptian mummies and stuffed animals.

"Art is important because it stimulates young people's creativity. If you see great art it makes you ask questions and if you ask questions it makes you seek answers. It's always been in my mind that this is something I wanted to do."

D'Offay was originally in talks with Scotland's galleries and the Tate became involved because of the sheer scale.

Much of the art will plug significant gaps in Britain's national collections. Three rooms will comprise 69 black-and-white photographs by the pioneering Diane Arbus who, despite her reputation as one of the greatest American photographers, is not represented at either Tate or the National Galleries of Scotland.

It is a similar story for other artists. Tate holds just one work by Jeff Koons and the NGS none. Now D'Offay is giving over 17 Koons works including Winter Bears, 1988. Robert Mapplethorpe, the boundary-pushing American photographer is not represented at all, but now three rooms will be filled with 64 photographs, probably the best collection in the world after the Guggenheim's.

D'Offay is also donating a breathtaking collection of 136 works by Joseph Beuys, including 20 sculptures; nine works by Gilbert and George including one of their earliest together, George the Cunt and Gilbert the Shit from 1970; five Damien Hirsts including his largest early spot painting and a sheep in formaldehyde; six important works filling three rooms by German artist Anselm Kiefer; 14 works which at a stroke vastly improve the collection of Gerhard Richter; and 22 works by American Ed Ruscha. The list goes on.

Both the galleries and d'Offay hope it will set a precedent and act as an example for others with the wherewithal to follow.

John Leighton, director of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: "Our postwar and contemporary art collections are weak - at a stroke it becomes one of international significance."

The touring nature of the scheme is central and 11 regional galleries - Aberdeen, Bexhill, Colchester, Glasgow, Inverness, Middlesbrough, Cardiff, Walsall, Orkney, Belfast, Wolverhampton - have already signed up to host rooms. Nor is it a finished project. "This isn't something that is locked, finished, complete," said Serota. "We would hope to buy one or two more rooms a year."

Serota said the donation was up there with the great bequests which led to the establishment of the Tate, by Henry Tate at the end of the 19th century, and the Courtauld Institute of Art, by Samuel Courtauld in the 1930s and 1940s.

"It is an extraordinary act of philanthropy and I don't know the equivalent of it anywhere else in the world. It will be a legacy for future generations," he added.

It is hoped the public will get to see the first rooms in spring 2009.

Andy Warhol, Skulls (1976)