British artists Damien Hirst and David Hockney are to make gifts of some of their paintings to the Tate Gallery in London, which can no longer afford such works, its director Nicholas Serota said on Monday.
It is so broke that it is asking for gifts and legacies to maintain its internationally famous collection of works of modern and contemporary art.
”We have to take this initiative to sustain our public collections in the face of declining public resources,” Serota said, pointing out that government funding had dropped over the past 20 years while prices had risen sharply.
Artists including Lucian Freud (Boy Smoking,1950), Turner prize winner Anish Kapoor (Blue Void,1990) and Gilbert and George gave the gallery some of the output on Monday, while private collectors, among them film director Richard Attenborough, will bequeath the gallery works.
Supporters of the Tate have undertaken to provide a million pounds ($1,84-million) to help the gallery out of its financial predicament.
Private individuals have joined the campaign with gifts and a group of benefactors has been set up which seeks to buy works of art ”at short notice at advantageous prices.”
The aim is to acquire over a 10 year period 100 works from private collections or from the artists themselves.
”We have a duty to acquire works by living artists, to build the leading collection of British art in the world and an outstanding collection of international modern and contemporary art,” Serota said. – Sapa-AFP