The Independent has reported that London’s National Gallery has condemned the government’s supply of state funds and its lack of support.
In an introduction to the gallery’s annual review on 30 September, chairman Peter Scott and director Charles Saumarez Smith claimed that the government is waging a secret campaign of “attrition in core funding” against it.
Scott and Smith also claimed that, due to the government grant falling by £2.5m in real terms in the last ten years, the remaining £20.4m grant falls far short of sufficiently covering even basic costs, leaving “nothing to spare” for acquisitions and potentially jeopardising the future of the gallery.
