Cash-strapped council hits back in Lowry painting sale row

A cash-strapped council has accused museum chiefs of "ignorance" after they condemned its decision to sell a LS Lowry painting.

The work, A Riverbank, is expected to fetch about £500,000 at auction next month and will plug a gap in Bury Council's budget, which is facing a £10 million shortfall.

In response, the Museums Association wants to bar the council from receiving lottery and other public funding for its gallery.

Painted in 1947, it was bought by the council in 1951 for £175 directly from the artist's agent and hangs in the Bury Museum and Art Gallery.

The association's president, National Gallery director Charles Saumarez Smith, will criticise the sale at its annual conference in Bournemouth today.

But council leader Wayne Campbell said the association "doesn't live in the real world" and argued that "people come before a picture".

Dr Saumarez Smith will say that selling the Lowry has not been motivated by a desire to enhance the collection or to stabilise the finances of the museum, The Times reported.

In his speech, he will say: "I fear that it will open the floodgates to all sorts of gratuitous and arbitrary sales, motived by greed rather than responsibility."

Disciplinary proceedings are being taken against the council by the association which could lead to the museum being stripped of its accreditation and starved of funding.

The association said selling the painting principally for financial reasons would break its code of ethics.

Mr Campbell replied: "They don't live in the real world.

"Here in Bury we have decided that people come before a picture, and that can only be right. I am really glad this group doesn't run our social services."

A statement from the council added: "The Museum Association's statement shows a level of ignorance unsurpassed in this debate.

"Many of these agencies directly funded by Government, bequests and significant lottery funding have, from their lofty heights, had much to say on the proposed sale of a single painting, not itself part of our collection policy.

"They have not had to make the real decisions faced by a poorly-funded public authority, anxious to ensure its spending was directed to vulnerable children, as Bury had to face in 2005/06.

"The 'ethical standards' of the Museum and Libraries Association read like an 'old-style closed shop'.

"They want to expel Bury Council, without a hearing, and according to the 'code', would be happier if we closed the gallery half the time rather than sell a single painting."

The painting will be auctioned at Christie's on November 17.

Copyright Press Association 2006.