The National Portrait Gallery is currently campaigning to raise the cash to buy a self-portrait by Sir Anthony Van Dyck. Currently subject to an export bar, the painting from 1640 will be sold to an overseas purchaser unless the following sum can be raised:
£12.5 million
That’s the valuation that’s been set and it’s a lot of money for a country that is cash-strapped and under the economic cosh. Public sector net debt was £1,231.7 billion at the end of November 2013, so the government can’t help out. Personal debt in the UK is currently riding at an average of £54,000 per household, so should they be stumping up for a masterpiece to stay in Britain? Will tourists help out?
Van Dyke’s Self-portrait that is the subject of the donation drive
Van Dyck was a great artist, a favourite of the King who lost his head. His portraiture has a fluid style that has much influenced artists ever since. We’re told that ‘The story of Britain as told in the National Portrait Gallery is incomplete without a portrait of Van Dyke’.
So hand over your cash immediately!
But…
The verb save is emotive. Will the cultural life of the nation be noticeably reduced by not having this self-portrait of the Antwerp painter on a public gallery wall? Many want to scream yes! but there’s no denying that £12.5 million could get a whole lot of other stuff – two-thirds of a Trident missile for example. No, that’s a bad illustration.
This portrait has been in a private collection in the UK for 400 years, so for it to be bought and displayed by the National Portrait Gallery would be a great achievement. Will they manage to raise the money? Should they raise the money? Just over 2 million people visited the National Portrait Gallery in 2012, but of these around 645,000 were pulled in by contemporary shows like Lucian Freud and the BP Portrait award. How many of these would also have been interested in a Van Dyke portrait?
Should it stay in England?
You decide…with your wallet.
Of course, art world inflation being what it is, in a few years £12.5million could look like a snip. Maybe it will be an investment for future generations. Maybe they could sell it to pay off the national debt…
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