Bristol City Council owns £134 million worth of art, including four Banksy pieces

Bristol City Council has come under fire after new figures revealed it owns £134m worth of art – yet almost 90% is “gathering dust in a back room somewhere out of sight”. Participants criticized the huge value of its collection, which is believed to be the third largest of any local authority in the country and is almost the amount controversially spent on refurbishing the Bristol Beacon after costs almost tripled.

The lobby group Taxpayers Alliance and a conservative councilor are urging the organization to sell part of it to help balance the books. The council says Bristol’s museum collection is “a vital part of the city’s cultural and educational offer, with a value that extends beyond the insurers’ estimate”.

It says there are ethical principles and standards of practice museums are expected to follow, including not selling objects for money, which would put museums at risk of losing accreditation and funding. Bristol City Council owns almost 38,000 works of art – including four by Banksy, plus one it has on loan – each worth an average of more than £3,500, according to a response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

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But only 4,245 pieces – 11.2 percent – ​​are on public display. Just four months ago, councilors approved the City Hall’s annual budget, which contained cuts of £39.3m over the next five years, including £24m for 2024/25 alone, after financial agents warned that the authority faces a maximum funding shortfall of £32.2m in the period to 2028/29.

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The number of art objects and the proportion on public display were revealed in response to the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s FOI, which it sent to all 397 councils and resulted in a report by the organization in May called ‘Wasting Monet?’ . Bristol City Council withheld the total value of the collection, but this is included in its own draft annual accounts, published earlier this month.

This meant it was not included in a table in the report which names the top 10 local authorities in the UK that hold the most expensive amount of artwork. If it had, the city council would have been third, behind Manchester’s £384m and Southampton on £190m, but ahead of fourth-placed Leeds, which has £110m sterling.

The average value of the local authority collection is £8.7 million, of which only 28% is on public display, with Bristol’s collection valued at much more and its proportion on display much smaller. Cllr Jonathan Hucker (Conservative, Stockwood) said: “I am not suggesting a fire sale of the council’s treasures, I believe the history and heritage of our town should be respected and celebrated.

“For example, I was appalled by the wanton desecration of the statue of Edward Colston, a protected monument. And objects bequeathed to the city by benefactors should obviously not be sold.

“However, £134m is a lot of money to have tied up. According to information provided by Bristol City Council to the Taxpayers Alliance, almost 90 per cent of the art owned by the council is not on public display and is therefore assumed to be gathering dust in a back room somewhere out of sight.

“I think there has to be the potential to unlock some of the value held in this collection to be used in a productive manner. Or perhaps any proceeds could be earmarked to cover some of the ruinous costs of the Colston Hall renovation project.”

The concert hall was renamed the Bristol Beacon after the city center statue of the 17th century slave trader was toppled and thrown into the harbor by Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020. The venue reopened last November after £132m worth of renovations, £84m of which landed. to the city council after the project’s costs tripled from the original £48 million.

At a recent audit committee meeting, Cllr Hucker asked if the authority had considered selling some of its art collection. Acting finance director Tony Kirkham replied: “It is my understanding that, in accordance with the museum’s registration, if we were to seek to dispose of an asset, we would first give it to other museums and give them the opportunity to take it.

“So it’s very difficult to keep your museum record and sell your artifacts, so it’s not one I would propose as a (financial) strategy.” The TaxPayers’ Alliance said that despite being in combined debt of nearly £100 billion, British councils had built art collections worth almost £1.5 billion.

Report author Jonathan Eida said: “These findings will not paint a pretty picture for burdened taxpayers who have been hit year after year by record council tax rises. UK town hall bosses claim they are on the road to bankruptcy, but too many are prioritizing art collections over bin collections.

“Councils should ensure their art holdings are on public display or consider selling them to fill depleted coffers.” Bristol’s collection of 37,983 works of art, named in the report as the seventh largest for a local authority, is almost 15 times that of the National Gallery and six times that of the average council.

It’s also 3,002 more pieces than five years ago, when the previous ‘Wasting Monet? it was published. At the time, the collection was worth £117m and 13% of it was on public display.

The latest report placed the city council ninth in the country for the most artworks purchased between April 2020 and March 2023, with all new items bought from external funds. A Bristol City Council spokesman said: “Bristol’s museum collection is a vital part of the city’s cultural and educational offer, with a value that extends beyond the insurers’ estimate.

“While some may call for the sale of cultural property, there are ethical principles and standards of practice that museums must uphold and promote, which include how collections are treated and the sale of items for financial purposes. It is widely recognized that any sale of items for financial purposes would put the museum at risk of losing accreditation, threatening to lose funding from Arts Council England and other external funders, and also risking damaging public confidence in museums.”

The five Banksy artworks held by Bristol museums are The Grim Reaper, on loan from a third party and on display at M Shed, The Empty Plinth T-shirt, also on display at M Shed, Angel With Paint Pot, on display at the Museum and Bristol Art Gallery, the Tesco Value Petrol Bomb poster, which is being conserved, and the Jerusalem 3D model, on loan to the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. “The Waste of Monet?” The report said: “Public display includes those that can be viewed by members of the public in local authority buildings such as council offices, libraries, sports and leisure centers and schools under local authority control.

“It would exclude areas of council properties that cannot be easily accessed by members of the public, such as the office of the head of the paid service. Artwork includes, but is not limited to, paintings, photographs, sculptures and electronic art.

“Of the 397 councils contacted, 339 councils complied with the request by providing partial or full responses. Councils often returned a Section 31 response to a Freedom of Information request.

“This means the council refused to provide a figure because it was concerned it could increase crime related to the tracks. Other councils have responded with a section 12, meaning data collection would take longer than the legal limit.”

The council’s accounts say the monetary value of its artwork is on an annual insurance assessment basis. They say: “The collections have been in the care of conservators since the 1940s.

“They specialize in antiques, paintings, paper and photographs and preventive conservation and are based at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. The museum occasionally makes available items from its collection on loan to regional and national museums and loans collections for specific exhibitions. Collections not on display are kept in secure storage, but access is permitted by appointment.”