THE ART NEWSPAPER Number 284, November 2016 19
Northampton Museum shrugs
off curse of Sekhemka to
press ahead with expansion
East Midlands institution has been ostracised after controversial
deaccession of prized Egyptian sculpture
SEKHEMKA: LEON NEAL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES. WALSALL: GEORGE BENSON
John Eskenazi
John eskenazi ltd
tel +44 (0) 20 7409 3001
eail [email protected]
Goddess. Northern India, North India, Post Gupta, Late 7th/8th century. Sandstone.Height 98cmSekhemka,
considered
the finest
non-royal
sculpture
of its kind,
has been
exported
to an
anonymous
buyerThe statue of Sekhemka is examined before its sale in 2014 at Christie’s, where it fetched a record £15.8mWEST MIDLANDSWalsall’s lagship gallery at risk
Q The New Art Gallery in Walsall, in the West Midlands, could face
closure if cost-cutting proposals by the local authority go ahead.
The £21m Caruso St John-designed gallery heralded a boom in
regional UK art institutions when it opened in 2000, in partnership
with Arts Council England. The building is the permanent home of
the prestigious Garman Ryan collection, donated to Walsall by the
widow of the British sculptor Jacob Epstein in 1973. The gift of 365
works includes pieces by Degas, Van Gogh, Modigliani and Lucian
Freud. Walsall Council, which is under pressure to save £85m across
the borough by 2020, is planning to reduce the gallery’s current
subsidy of around £900,000 a year by more than £500,000 over
the next four years, according to a council report released last
month. While there are no plans to make redundancies among
the gallery’s staf of 24, the report warns that the free-admission
institution “will have to operate on a more commercial basis and
become self-sustaining... or may close”. A decision on the inal
budget is due next February. H.M.FUNDING
Northampton. The Northampton
Museum and Art Gallery is forging ahead
with its planned expansion despite its
blacklisting by professional organisa-
tions after the controversial sale of the
prized Egyptian sculpture of Sekhemka.
The museum, in the East Midlands, will
close next February and is due to reopen
after the first phase of the extension is
complete in September 2018.
Northampton Borough Council’s
decision to sell Sekhemka provoked
protest and, later, sanctions. The 2,400-
2,300BC painted limestone sculpture,
donated by the Marquess of Northamp-
ton around 1880, was the museum’s
greatest treasure. In July 2014, the local
council sold the sculpture at Christie’s to
raise funds for the museum’s expansion.
It fetched £15.8m, a record for an Egyp-
tian antiquity. The present Lord North-
ampton received 45% of the proceeds.
This, plus the auction house’s commis-
sion, left the council with £7.7m, which
it ringfenced for its museums.
The deaccession of Sekhemka vio-
lated the policy of Arts Council England,
which runs a national accreditation
scheme for museums. The organisation
believes that it is unethical to sell objects
to raise funds except under exceptional
circumstances and only after the items
have been ofered to other museums.
The Arts Council withdrew accred-
itation from Northampton Museums
Service a month after the sale. As a
result, the city’s main museum lost its
eligibility for grants from the Heritage
Lottery Fund. The Museums Association
withdrew Northampton’s membership,
and the Art Fund is no longer consider-
ing it for acquisition grants.
Despite the museum’s outcast status,
the council is to build the much-needed
extension to Northampton Museumand Art Gallery, originally planned as a
single £14m project. In the wake of the
Sekhemka sanctions, it has decided to
divide the work into two phases.Challenging schedule
The first £6.7m phase will be funded
by the Sekhemka proceeds alone. The
second £8m phase, due to begin in 2020,
will be funded through “sponsorship,
fundraising and ... grant-giving bodies”,
according to Councillor Anna King of
Northampton Borough Council.
But this plan is optimistic. The with-
drawal of Arts Council accreditation
lasts at least five years, so Northampton
will not be able to apply for grants until
late 2019. Even if the museum is reac-
credited right away—which is far from
certain—the local council would only
have one year to raise the money needed
to begin work on the second phase.
Meanwhile, Sekhemka, considered
the finest non-royal Old Kingdom sculp-
ture, was exported from the UK to an
anonymous foreign buyer last April.
Martin BaileyWalsall’s New Art Gallery, which opened
in 2000, now faces deep cutsSELL-OFF SANCTIONS
Three other UK museums have lost Arts Council
accreditation over deaccessioning in recent years1 The Riesco collection: Croydon council, in south London, sold
17 key works from the Riesco collection of Chinese ceramics
for £8.2m in 2013. The proceeds were earmarked for the
refurbishment of the Fairield Halls, a concert hall and theatre.
The Arts Council withdrew Croydon’s museum accreditation a
month after the sale.2 The Bressingham Steam Museum: the Norfolk museum sold
the Royal Scot locomotive to deal with a budget deicit, leading
to the loss of its accreditation in 2013.3 The Bury Art Museum: in 2006, accreditation was withdrawn
from the museum, in northern England, after the local council
sold a painting by L.S. Lowry for £1.4m. M.B.