The British Council may have to part with its art collection, worth £200 million, due to outstanding debt. This is according to reports from the Times and Daily Mail.
During the pandemic, the Council took out an emergency loan of £250 million from the government, with interest at a rate of £14 million per year.
The Council’s art collection includes pieces from Henry Moore, Tracey Emin, Lucian Freud, Damien Hirst and David Hockney. About a fifth of the pieces owned by the council are on loan around the world at any given time, while the rest stay in storage.
However, around half of the collection is protected from sale. This is due to agreements with the artists who donated their work under the condition it would not be sold.
‘Everything the British Council has, which is not that much anymore, we are exploring selling,’ said Chief Executive Scott McDonald. The Council have declined to give a list of works that may be affected, but it may also include around half of its 40 buildings around the world.
The Council have reportedly already let go of almost 1500 staff. According to a British Council spokesperson, ‘without action from Government’ the Council’s work in arts and culture is ‘at risk’:
‘We are asking the Government to act urgently to relieve the burden of our pandemic loan and the pressures of a decade of declining grant funding to ensure that we can continue with our mission to support peace and prosperity for the people of the UK and millions of people across the globe.’
