National Gallery needs extra cash, warns review
The Government has been heavily criticised for failing to adequately fund The National Gallery in London.
Director of gallery, Charles Saumarez Smith, spoke out against the “attrition in core funding” which has prompted several gallery closures and threatened the upkeep of world-class collections.
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Mr Smith was gallery chairman, Peter Scott, who highlighted the structural ramifications of underfunding in the gallery’s annual review.
The report said it would require an extra 2.5 million pounds on top of the 2002-03 Department for Culture, Media and Sport grant of 20.4 million pounds to bring operations back to an acceptable standard.
Yesterday’s review warned that galleries holding treasures from the national art collection may only open for a few hours a week, should the extra funding request be turned down.
Although the gallery is due to receive a small funding increase in the next two years, the review said taking inflation into account and pinpointing capital cost repairs alone was insufficient in the long run to maintain the maintenance of Britain’s artistic heritage.
