"Then it is dark; a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains." - John Cheever

Monday, February 02, 2009

Diana and Actaeon to stay in Scotland


Hurrah! Some mealy mouthed labour MP (or MSP or whatever) on the Scottish news just now complaining about the use of taxpayers' money - bah to him.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of camping with the Girl Guides when I was younger. Of course we didn't have to pay £12.5 million for healthy fun, and we had a little more dignity. We certainly wouldn't have let one of the Boy Scouts find us in that condition.

Col said...

Edna's recollections aside, and notwithstanding some uneasiness about the landed gentry holding us to ransom, I think it's great that they've held on to the Titians. I went to see some of the Titians in the National Gallery in Trafalgar Sq the other week, and they really are magnificent things.

Tom said...

Must admit, am a bit uneasy about so much money being spent on a single object of art - feels a bit decadent. But still, good news that this treasure is staying in public ownership don't really object about tax being spent on this sort of stuff. Given the billions wasted by this government on foreign misadventures, I don't think Labour Mps in much position to moan.

Col said...

It was a lot of cash - £50m for two paintings. But... access to the rest of his art collection (on loan) for public display was part of the deal, the price he asked is below market value and a lot of the money came from members of the public (including a couple of quid from me). Seems like a waste to a lot of people, given the crunchy times, which I understand and have sympathy with. But otherwise they'd probably have been snapped up by some hedge fund manager, kleptocrat or oligarch, which would have been a pity.

Col said...

Plus, that's only half what Man City tried to pay for Kaka

John said...

It's actually £50m *each* but Diana and Callisto doesn't need to be paid for till 2013. Still they're dead good. Nice bit of Titian.