Monday 17 March 2008

D'OFFAY NICE OF YOU

by Katie Smyth

SquareOne Entertainment

The donation of a major new international collection of art valued at £125 million was announced last month at Edinburgh's Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

'Artist Rooms' is being created through a donation made by collector Anthony d'Offay and his wife Anne who amassed the collection of 725 pieces over a period of 28 years.

Secretary of state for culture, media and sport Andy Burnham said: “We would need to look back to the late 19th century or the early 20th century with the likes of Sir Henry Tate to see a similar sized gesture.”

The concept behind the exhibition is a series of 50 individual touring rooms devoted to 25 artists and will include works by Joseph Beuys, Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol. An additional seven artists will be represented in exhibitions throughout the country.

The collection is to be owned and managed jointly by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland and will tour throughout Britain to a wide range of partner galleries.

Further information can be found at www.nationalgalleries.org.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this sort of gesture really dubious. Isn't D'Offay just using the national collections (taxpayer-funded) as a way of ramping up the value of his art collection? Saatchi did the same. The grand tradition of zillionaires giving their art to the public (yes please, I'll accept that knighthood for SErvices to the Arts) is just a way of whitewashing themselves. Sir Henry Tate, who you mention, comes from a family that made a fortune trading sugar grown by slaves in the West Indies. That's who paid for his art collection.
Yours
Sour

Azza said...

Pictures please, of D'Offay's loot....!