9th January 2008
UK artists' positions outsourced to Asia
The future of BritArt? |
Culture minister Tessa Blackstone said that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport had been trying to cut costs for years but in the end it had to "bight the bullet" and relocate positions to the Far East.
Bursting out
"Britain has historically had a world leading art industry, but ever since the 1950s it's been in massive decline," Baroness Blackstone stated.
"This decision was taken with a heavy heart, but the only way Britain's art market is to remain competitive is to shift production overseas."
Scores of artists have protested at the decision and held a march first thing in the afternoon in Trafalgar Square.
Support needed
Led by Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and the weird bloke who dresses like a doll, the artists created a steel and used tissue installation that they said represented a burning effigy of the baroness.
"Britain's arts industry led the world in Victorian times and still has drive in it yet if the government just gives it the support it needs," said taxidermist and part-time artist Hirst.
"Imagine a world where the average person can no longer pop into their local art gallery and pick up a piece of solid, British art for their lounge or second home," added Emin.
However, the culture minister said that the bottom line was vital and that relocating artistic works to China and India was the "only way Britain's art can avoid bankruptcy".
Big things needed
Baroness Blackstone pointed to the spiralling cost of British art in comparison with Asian.
"An unmade Emin bed costs around £150,000, yet a Chinese labourer can make an even messier bed with ten times as many condoms for around a hundredth of the price. Similarly, an Indian can produce a tent with even more lovers in it for a pittance of the £40,000 Charles Saatchi paid for Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995," she added.
Artists however refuse to accept that relocation is the only to save Britain's art industry and claim that a private buyer is one possible alternative.
Right proportion
The minister stated that despite many potential candidates, no one with money to sense in the right proportion could be found to bail out the industry.
In addition to moving artists' roles, the British Museum and National Gallery are to be moved from London to Mumbai (Bombay) from 2009 "as rental and labour costs offer huge saving potentials", but Baroness Blackstone swore blind it would not affect visitors "untowardly".
"It's mainly foreigners who visit anyway judging from the few tattered notes they tend to leave," she added.
Bursting out
"Britain has historically had a world leading art industry, but ever since the 1950s it's been in massive decline," Baroness Blackstone stated.
"This decision was taken with a heavy heart, but the only way Britain's art market is to remain competitive is to shift production overseas."
Scores of artists have protested at the decision and held a march first thing in the afternoon in Trafalgar Square.
Support needed
Led by Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and the weird bloke who dresses like a doll, the artists created a steel and used tissue installation that they said represented a burning effigy of the baroness.
"Britain's arts industry led the world in Victorian times and still has drive in it yet if the government just gives it the support it needs," said taxidermist and part-time artist Hirst.
"Imagine a world where the average person can no longer pop into their local art gallery and pick up a piece of solid, British art for their lounge or second home," added Emin.
However, the culture minister said that the bottom line was vital and that relocating artistic works to China and India was the "only way Britain's art can avoid bankruptcy".
Big things needed
Baroness Blackstone pointed to the spiralling cost of British art in comparison with Asian.
"An unmade Emin bed costs around £150,000, yet a Chinese labourer can make an even messier bed with ten times as many condoms for around a hundredth of the price. Similarly, an Indian can produce a tent with even more lovers in it for a pittance of the £40,000 Charles Saatchi paid for Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995," she added.
Artists however refuse to accept that relocation is the only to save Britain's art industry and claim that a private buyer is one possible alternative.
Right proportion
The minister stated that despite many potential candidates, no one with money to sense in the right proportion could be found to bail out the industry.
In addition to moving artists' roles, the British Museum and National Gallery are to be moved from London to Mumbai (Bombay) from 2009 "as rental and labour costs offer huge saving potentials", but Baroness Blackstone swore blind it would not affect visitors "untowardly".
"It's mainly foreigners who visit anyway judging from the few tattered notes they tend to leave," she added.
