The National Art Collections
The Bill, at present before Parliament, to modify the administration of the National Art Collections has roused a good deal of opposition. Nobody has contested the purely administrative proposals, but anxiety has been expressed over the clauses allowing the trustees of the National and -Tate Galleries to lend pictures to exhibitions abroad or to the Ministry of Works for hanging in Government buildings at home or overseas and to sell unwanted or surplus works. As to this last proposal, some safeguards have been included in the bill. But the wisdom of allowing sales is still doubtful. To sell a picture is to take a step which is irrevocable, and directors and trustees of galleries are human and therefore fallible. If we want to continue to see exhibitions like that of Flemish Art now at Burlington House, we must be pre- pared to lend our pictures for similar occasions abroad. The proposal to lend works for hanging in Government buildings is fairly harmless, provided it is done in moderation. Rather than feed too many of their charges into the maw of the Ministry of Works, the trustees of the National and Tate Galleries should provide facilities such as already exist at the National Portrait Gallery, where any picture can be seen by students at a few minutes' Notice. Something could also be done to organise more loans from London, when provincial collections are scanty. The Bill certainly lacks imagination in these respects, and will, moreover, do nothing to remedy the permanent financial handicap under which the directors of galleries labour. And.this is a poor field for economy.
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