ARTS
The heritage battle
Martin Bailey on how the purchase of the Becket Casket has set a dangerous precedent Delight that the Becket Casket has been saved is tempered by the fact that the nation ended up paying more than twice what it would have cost if the money had been raised earlier. David Barrie, Director of the National Art Collections Fund, admitted after the auction that all con- cerned should have moved with more vigour'. The casket only stayed in Britain after the Canadian-based collector Lord Thomson gallantly pulled out of the pur- chase. Even then, thanks must go to anoth- er overseas source. Although it passed almost unnoticed, one of the largest dona- tions (believed to be over £100,000) for the V&A purchase is coming from the Hong Kong-based Po Shing Woo Foundation.
Few objects which have come up for sale in recent years have a stronger claim to be regarded as part of our national heritage. The Becket Casket was probably commis- sioned in the 1180s by Abbot Benedict of Peterborough, just a few years after Arch- bishop Thomas 'a Becket's murder in 1170. Although the casket is likely to have been made in the enamel-making centre of Limoges, it was ordered by an English patron and depicts the story of an English martyr. The marvellous cloisonné enamel panels show Becket's gruesome decapita- tion and his shroud being escorted up to heaven by a pair of angels. Dozens of Becket reliquaries survive, but this is the earliest and very finest. It remained in Eng- land for 750 years, until 1930, when it went to France and then to a German collector.
What had been lovingly created as a reli- quary for religious veneration eventually ended up as an object for financial specula- tion. In 1979 the casket was bought by the British Rail Pension Fund. It was subse- quently loaned to the British Museum, a mutually advantageous arrangement which saved the Pension Fund paying insurance premiums and offered public access to this national treasure. Inevitably, there came a time when the Pension Fund decided to realise its investment.
In December 1994 the British Rail Pen- sion Fund told the British Museum that it wanted to sell, offering it first chance to buy. Negotiations began and agreement seemed close on a price of £1.8 million. The British Museum then approached the newly established Heritage Lottery Fund, which sought independent advice on a val- uation and eventually offered a contribu- tion of £900,000. This still left a very large sum to be raised. In February 1996 the National Art Collections Fund, a charity which helps private collections buy art- works, responded positively to a request for a £100,000 grant. But, facing cuts in its gov- ernment funding and with other acquisi- tions in the pipeline, raising the rest of the money seemed an impossible task for the British Museum, and in March it reluctant- ly decided to drop out. The challenge was handed over to the V&A, an equally suit- able home for the casket.
Negotiations with the British Museum had taken 16 months, and in retrospect it was a mistake for them to have been allowed to drag on. The British Rail Pension Fund was becoming impatient to sell and there was growing interest in the casket from North American collectors and muse- ' urns. The V&A was soon warned that the Pension Fund would be unlikely to settle for less than £2.2 million. The museum asked the Heritage Lottery Fund to assist, which came back with an offer of £1.35 million (75 per cent of the earlier £1.8 million figure, which represents the highest proportion it can contribute). Once again there was still the problem of raising the rest, particularly because the V&A's acquisition funds had been depleted by its commitment for Cano- va's 'Three Graces'. We can reveal that ini- tially the museum put up just £10,000 towards the casket from its own money. Meanwhile the National Art Collections Fund, with the agreement of the V&A, decided to go public in an attempt to drum up support. Thanks to lobbying by the National Art Collections Fund, on 13 June the Times started what was to turn into a campaign to save the casket, a plea echoed by the rest of the press. One of the coups of the National Art Collections Fund was its approach to Valerie Eliot, the widow of the author of Murder in the Cathedral, who responded with a generous personal dona- tion of £50,000.
In the week before the auction, the V&A raised its own commitment from £10,000 to £100,000 and became more confident of eventually raising the full £2.2 million, but by this time it was too late. The Pension Fund was confident of getting a good price at auction. On the eve of the 4 July auction a secret rescue operation was mounted. So far the matter had been the responsibility of the National Lottery Fund, but it was handed over to a linked organisation, the National Heritage Memorial Fund. It has greater flexibility, both to buy artworks in its own name and to offer a larger propor- tion of the cost.
The National Heritage Memorial Fund took the courageous decision to commit up to £3.6 million for the casket, nearly half its entire money for the year. But at the auc- tion it was eventually forced to drop out of the bidding at this price, and the casket was knocked down to an anonymous buyer for £3.8 million. Had the National Heritage Memorial Fund gone higher, the compet- ing bidder might well have topped it, and as Lord Rothschild admitted after the auc- tion, 'there must be price discipline with public money'.
With growing public interest in the cas- ket, its export would have set off a major political row, and the Secretary of State for National Heritage, Virginia Bottomley, intervened just minutes after the auction. She announced that an export licence would be required for this 'jewel of our nation's heritage'. In the event of an export application, she would take advice on whether it should be deferred for six months to give a British institution the chance to match the price. The realisation that it would be difficult to get an export licence seems to have had the desired effect of making the purchaser of the Beck- et Casket feel less enthusiastic about his new acquisition.
On the face of it, Mrs Bottomley's announcement saved the casket, but it rep- resents a dangerous precedent. It may well discourage owners from bringing heritage artworks from overseas into Britain, because of a fear that there could be prob- lems in re-exporting them. Indeed had the British Rail Pension Fund anticipated the export licence requirement, it would have presumably originally hidden away the cas- ket in a Swiss bank vault, rather than lend- ing it to the British Museum. Mrs Bottomley's announcement solved an immediate crisis at the cost of creating a long-term problem.
A week after the auction it was announced that the mystery bidder had been Lord Thomson, who had agreed to step down to allow the V&A to acquire the casket. The National Heritage Memorial Fund is putting in £3.6 million and the V&A will have to find the remainder. Already help has been promised from the Po .Shing Woo Foundation, the National Art Collections Fund, the Headley Trust (the Sainsbury family) and from T.S. Eliot's widow. This leaves approximately £200,000 to be raised by the V&A, and its Director, Dr Alan Borg, admits that some of this will have to come from admission charges, which are being introduced in October.
The saga of the Becket Casket is a salu- tary reminder that the National Lottery is no guarantee that heritage artworks will be saved, although there has been a remark- able set of acquisitions with this new source of money. Negotiations over sales are always complicated. Matching funds are a problem for museums, and there is a grow- ing feeling that the 25 per cent which they must raise themselves is too high a propor- tion on a major artwork, with 10 per cent perhaps being a fairer figure.
The Becket Casket is only the latest object which has needed to be rescued. This week there has been a last-minute attempt to save Guercino's 'Erminia and the wounded Tancred', which is on offer to the Getty Museum in California. The Her- itage Lottery Fund has offered £1.5 million to the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh and last Monday the National Art Collections Fund made a £100,000 grant. A further £125,000 has been raised, but £275,000 is still needed.
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is trying to save a Canova bust. It needs up to £746,000 and this week the National Art Collections Fund pledged £50,000, with an application for £560,000 to be considered next Tuesday by the National Heritage Memorial Fund. Unless the money is raised by 9 August, Canova's 'Ideal' head will go abroad. The heritage battle continues.
Previous page
