At least 50 paintings, estimated to cost hundreds or even thousands of pounds, has disappeared from the embassies and other official agencies of Great Britain Abroad

At least 50 paintings, estimated to cost hundreds or even thousands of pounds, has disappeared from the embassies and other official agencies of Great Britain abroad. It became clear during the last inspection the Government art collections. None of these works were not insured. According to available data, some paintings were stolen, but more than half simply disappeared without trace.

One of the representatives of the British parliamentary opposition, Jeremy Hunt (Jeremy Hunt), called on Minister for Culture, Andy Burnham (Andy Burnham) to ensure an adequate level of security. «While the entire country is trying to raise money to save the picture Tizian« Diana and Acteon », I am led to resentment of the fact that the Government can not even preserve the paintings, which we already have a», - he said.

to the Government art collection includes approximately 13.5 thousand works, covering the period from the XVI century to the present day. Many of them have established the greatest artists, whose names are well known throughout the world. To maintain this collection is allocated every year for half a million pounds, and about half of these funds are spent for buying and ordering products for the overseas mission.

The value of this collection can not be described accurately, but most likely it has more than 100 million pounds. In 1988, curator praised her for 30 million pounds, but since then the collection has quickly grown strongly, and the price of art has risen.

Among the missing paintings were «Seaside Landscape» Abraham van Beijer (Abraham van Beyeren), which was stolen from the British Embassy in Ankara in 1970, as well as the «Sunrise. Capri », written by Frederick Leighton (Frederic Leighton), head of the Royal Academy of Arts from 1878 to 1896. His picture was in the British Embassy in Berlin and, according to available data, was destroyed during the Second World War. However, in 2000, she appeared at auction Christie's, which was sold for 102 thousand pounds. Despite the efforts of lawyers, the picture to the Government to return the collection has not yet been possible.

One of the representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport, UK said: «The government has a collection of more than 13.5 thousand works of art, which are regularly tested. Sometimes in the course of her, it appears that some work is no longer where they should be according to the documents. However, after some searches, many of them are often not detect ».

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Source: timesonline.co.uk , artinvestment.ru