the times | Saturday October 17 2020 1GM 15
News
The Royal College of Physicians has
been accused of “selling off the family
silver” over a proposal to auction a be-
quest of rare books including the first
ever printed in English.
The charity, founded in 1518 by a
royal charter from Henry VIII, risks
being stripped of its museum status if it
acts on a plan to sell a £10 million collec-
tion to plug a £3 million shortfall.
The books, bequeathed in 1680 by
the Marquess of Dorchester, include
one of the 12 surviving first editions of
The Canterbury Tales, a psalter owned
by John Dee, astronomer to Elizabeth I,
and The Recuyell of Historyes of Troye,
by Raoul Lefèvre the first book printed
in English on the Continent.
The sale may breach rules imposed
by the Museums Association that pro-
hibit sales intended “to generate short-
term revenue”, such as meeting a bud-
get deficit. Arts Council England,
which says it has not been told of the
plans, has stripped accreditation from
organisations such as Northampton’s
museum service, which sold an Egyp-
tian statue for £15.8 million in 2014.
Peter Openshaw, a college fellow and
professor of experimental medicine at
Imperial College London, said that the
sale was a mistake. “This is selling the
family silver and would damage the col-
lege’s reputation,” he told The Times.
Andrew Goddard, president of the
royal college, says, however, that the
books are “non-medical” and outside
its core remit.
Historians said that this was a misun-
derstanding of early medicine. Harold
Cook, professor of history at Brown
University in Rhode Island and former-
ly professor of the history of medicine
at University College London, said that
the books were “critical to physicians’
understanding of nature”.
“It would be shameful to narrow the
scope of the library of the Royal College
of Physicians when it was collected in
very purposeful ways in centuries past,”
he said. “It would be an admission of
rootlessness in an age that needs at
least some reminders of the laudable
ambitions of our learned ancestors.”
The college’s library, funded by Willi-
am Harvey, the physician, was built to
house the books after Lord Dorchester
made the gift from his deathbed.
Professor Goddard discussed the
plan at the annual general meeting last
month, comparing the organisation to
the Titanic. The projected £3 million
deficit this year brings the total deficit
over five years to £11.8 million.
The college has several funding
sources, including memberships, exam
fees, research projects and events.
Henry Woudhuysen, the rector of
Lincoln College, Oxford, and a former
president of the Bibliographical Soc-
iety, said potential donors would ques-
tion whether it was safe to give valuable
items. “There are at least three thingswrong with [the proposal],” he said. “It
destroys the integrity of a superb his-
toric library; it raises questions about
the moral right of the current trustees
to dispose of material that has been in
the college’s care for nearly 350 years;
and it means that faith in the College to
look after its treasures for future gener-
ations will be damaged.”
It is the third recent sell-off proposal
at a prominent arts body. Senior acade-
micians at the Royal Academy have
suggested that it could sell Michel-
angelo’s marble masterpiece, the Taddei
Tondo, to avoid making staff redun-
dant. It could be worth £100 million.
The Royal Opera House’s portrait of
Sir David Webster, its former chief ex-A globe-trotting supercar fan banked
£5 million of taxpayers’ money in com-
mission on a solar panel deal with a
cash-strapped council, The Times can
reveal.
Liam Kavanagh’s company, Rockfire
Capital, approached Thurrock council
in Essex with an opportunity to invest
£145 million in bonds linked to 19 solar
farms across the country. A solar indus-
try expert described the fee as “exces-
sive” and “out of the market”, a claim
that Mr Kavanagh disputes.
Mr Kavanagh, 43, who owns a fleet of
supercars and travels by private jet, sold
the “green bonds” to the council despite
knowing some of the sites were “blight-
ed by defects” and “flawed assets”.
The revelations emerged in a civil
court case this week between Mr Ka-
vanagh and the company he originally
bought the solar farms from. The seller,
Wirsol Energy Ltd, is claiming that Mr
Debt cure proves hard to swallow
The Royal College of Physicians might
have to sell copies of the Canterbury
Tales, L’Art et Instruction de Bien Danser
and a psalter owned by John DeeThe Royal College of
Physicians plans to fix
a £3m crisis by selling
its books, Jack Malvern
and Kat Lay report
ALAMYecutive, by David Hockney is
to be auctioned to save
jobs and is expected to
sell for up to £18 million.
Arts Council En-
gland said that it
should be informed
of any sale at the
Royal College of
Physicians. It added:
“Disposal by sale is
relatively high risk
from an ethical and
compliance point of
view, and the Museums
Association disposal
toolkit should be closely
followed.” The toolkit says“unethical decisions to dis-
pose of an item may have
significant consequen-
ces” including “loss of
accredited status”.
Professor Goddard
said: “No decision
has been taken about
which books, if any,
will be sold. If we
decide to go ahead
we will consult the
Arts Council as well
as taking account of
the views of all those
who share our pride in
the Royal College of Physi-
cians’ long history.”kney is
save
to
n.f
ms
sal
osely
kit says“unethica
pose of
signif
ces”
accsa
h
w
w
d
w
Ar
as
the
who
tthe Roy
cians’ longSupercar fan earns £5m in solar deal with struggling council
Kavanagh owes £6 million on the deal.
Mr Kavanagh is counter claiming that
he paid £19 million more than the sites
were worth because of the flaws. Wirsol
denies the claims.
During the case it emerged that nei-
ther the fee nor the defects were includ-
ed in the bond prospectus that Mr
Kavanagh’s company sent to Thurrock
council despite the document contain-
ing three pages of risk warnings.
Craig Morrison, for Wirsol, told the
court that the bond prospectus was
“plainly misleading” and breached
Financial Conduct Authority rules.
Mr Kavanagh told the court that he
saw no reason to include the fee in the
document because all his business part-
ners knew that Rockfire Capital “al-
ways charges commission”. Mr Kavan-
agh’s representatives say that the fee
was larger than normal because the
cash had to be raised at short notice
and there was a risk of default. Their
court submissions say a separate so-lar industry expert supports the scale of
the fee given the circumstances.
Mr Kavanagh told the court that the
council knew about the defects before
the deal was struck. Thurrock council
declined to say whether this was true
but pointed out that the defects had not
affected the income from the bonds.
An investigation by the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism has estab-
lished that the Conservative-run
council has invested £420 million in so-
lar power schemes linked to Mr Kavan-
agh’s companies.
These investments are part of
£815 million the council has borrowed
to spend on renewable energy projects
since 2015 to generate extra income to
pay for services. Its debt is set to ex-
ceed £2 billion in the next three years.
The case raises further questions
over the probity and scrutiny of
council investments. Local author-
ities have borrowed £6.6 billion since
2016 to buy shopping centres and officeblocks but council finances are now
taking a hammering as tenants default
on rent because of the pandemic.
John Kent, leader of the Labour
group, said: “These latest revelations
are very worrying given the precarious
state of Thurrock council’s finances.”
Sources close to Mr Kavanagh said
that solar bonds were good investments
for councils and less risky than com-
mercial property. They pointed out that
every bond arranged by Mr Kavanagh
had met its repayments.
Mr Kavanagh has denied any wrong-
doing and refutes any suggestion of hy-
pocrisy over how he chooses to travel.
His representatives said Mr Kavanagh
did not hold himself out to be an ambas-
sador for green energy and only sold it.
Thurrock council said its investment
policy had been approved and dis-
cussed at many council meetings. It
added the policy had earned it £65 mil-
lion over the past two years, which had
been invested in local services.Andrew Ellson, Gareth Davies
Liam Kavanagh, who has a fleet of fast
cars, sold “green bonds” to Thurrock