SIR,—Mr. Nevile Wallis asks what is the attitude of the
National Art-Collections Fund about the purchase of historical relics for our museums. As chairman of the Fund I must try to answer, though no answer can be explicit and though the best answer is 'It all depends. . .
The primary purpose of the National Art-Collec- tions Fund is to help our museums and galleries, whether national, municipal or university, to acquire works of art which, without our help, they could not afford and which would otherwise be sold abroad.
The Fund has thus been associated with most of the nation's main acquisitions during the last sixty years —the Cartoon of Leonardo da Vinci is a recent example.
The emphasis of our work is naturally on works of art: but we are also able to buy 'relics' in so far as they can be said to be of historical importance, and in fact we have a long list of such things to our credit, for example the Drake Cup, the Oxburgh embroideries said to be the work of Mary Queen of Scots, the Armada jewel and the Coronation ampulla of Charles I.
But 'relics' such as thcse must take second place, particularly as we have not nearly enough money
for the purchase of works of art, and every year
hundreds of these which we would like to keep in this country are shipped abroad. Moreover, 'relics' are notoriously difficult to authenticate and it would be foolish for us to pay a price which has been inflated by some personal association which cannot be proved.
Some of your readers may recall in this connection the cautionary verses of Thomas Hearne laughing at the 'relics' in the possession of Sir Hans Sloane, whose collections formed the nucleus of the British Museum. They include : A snakeskin which you may believe The serpent cast which tempted Eve, A fig-leaf apron; 'tis the same Which Adam wore to hide his shame, And now wants darning, lies beside The jaw by which poor Abel dy'd. A whetstone worn exceeding small, Which time has whet his scythe withal, The pigeon stuff'd, which Noah sent To tell the way the waters went....
So, 'it all depends' whether or not the National Art- Collections Fund is likely to contribute towards the purchase of any 'relic.' What, however, is certain, is that owing to lack of money we are constantly failing to enrich, as we would wish, the public collections.
Hertford House, Manchester Square, WI
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