Report says Sotheby’s offered to value objects for the collections of multiple English councils
Sotheby’s has approached multiple English councils offering to value their most valuable objects, according to a new report.
A story in the Financial Times says a letter from the auction house’s Tax, Heritage and UK Museums department was sent to councils in January.
Leeds City Council, Derby City Council, and councils in Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, Calderdale, West Berkshire, Erewash, Horsham, and Lewes and Eastbourne as well as Norfolk County Council, were reportedly contacted.
Kirklees and Calderdale said they had declined Sotheby’s offer. Horsham said it may engage with Sotheby’s “in the future”. The other councils did not say how they had responded, and declined to comment further.
“Public collections are at the heart of a successful community,” Simon Wallis, director of the Hepworth Wakefield, a council-backed gallery, told the FT.
“If works are sold to attempt to mitigate financial shortfalls for local authorities, the public permanently loses a major valued resource, generations in the making, and the underlying structural problems of local government funding will remain fundamentally unchanged.”
Sotheby’s told the FT it “was in touch with local authorities to offer a range of services including valuation, tax, heritage, and collection management”.
It said several authorities had accepted valuations for insurance purposes but no sales had been discussed.
It continued: “No museums were approached. Sotheby’s remains a dedicated partner to UK institutions, supporting them in building their collections and providing assistance through training, loan programmes, and other initiatives.”
