HOW NOT TO LOSE YOUR MARBLES
IN THE WORLD OF ART, the choicest of this past summer’s silly season red herrings was unquestionably the report that a small splinter group of Royal Academicians were planning to argue that the Royal Academy ought to sell its greatest treasure by far, the Taddei Tondo, in order to balance its books and save threatened jobs.
Since the RA budget relies so heavily on visitor income, it has been particularly adversely affected by the Covid crisis and will remain in difficulties until the happy day when life returns to normal. The Observer claims the RA’s deficit for this year as £8 million, and the possibility of redundancies is therefore horribly real. However, that does not mean selling the family silver — or, in this case, marble — is the right way forward.
The powers that be at the RA have made it abundantly plain that they have no intention of heading down this route, and the President, Rebecca Salter, is said to be “horrified” at the thought, so there is absolutely no need to start would — to quote from — be such a Bad Thing is still a worthwhile exercise, not least to guard against future insanities of this kind.
