The Anonymous Widower

Should Museums Sell Off Unwanted Art?

It is notr a sinmple question, but I’ll give a simple example concerning my council, St. Edmundsbury.

Mary Beale was the UK’s first professional female painter.  She painted society and other portraits in the early seventeenth century.  Twenty of her paintings survive and were given to the council some years ago.  Only four are exhibited in a dark corner of Moyses Hall Museum. Compare this, with Ipswich’s superb treatment of their Gainsboroughs and Constables!

So if they were offered a sensible solution, where this unique piece of artistic history was loaned  or even sold to say a new gallery in a town or city where they would be appreciated, they should take it. After all there are not too many successful female artists from that era and she derserves a lot better.

November 29, 2010 - Posted by AnonW | World | Art, Museum, St. Edmundsbury