Already a subscriber? Log in
What has changed over the intervening years is Britain’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to the threat of any masterpiece — major or minor — leaving these shores. For this, thanks are due in no small measure to the heroic campaigning of the National Art Collections Fund. The Fund was founded in 1903 by four individuals intent on stemming the flow of works of art out of Britain and saving them for the nation’s museums and galleries — the artist and art historian Christiana Herringham, the art critics D.S. MacColl and Roger Fry, and Sir Claude Phillips, Keeper of the Wallace Collection. It has remained as much our national conscience as it is public benefactor.
By 1907, George Bernard Shaw was describing American millionaires as ‘stripping Britain more ruthlessly than Napoleon stripped Italy and Spain’. Certainly, even 30 years earlier, the financier J.S. Morgan, father of John Pierpont, could spend 10,000 guineas —more than the National Gallery’s annual purchase grant — to win the likes of Gainsborough’s ravishing ‘Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire’. Shaw saw the Fund as ‘making good the neglect of the Treasury when it came to Britain’s art defence’. Crucially, it ensured that even those of limited means could have the satisfaction of playing their part.
From the first, the Fund has adroitly boxed above its weight, not least by masterminding ambitious public appeals to save such outstanding trophies as Vel
Trending
Also in Society
Also by Interconnect
Latest
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in