§ Mr. GRANTasked the President of the Board of Education whether he has sanctioned the suppression of the statement of prices paid by the Board for the acquisition of objects of art for the Victoria and Albert Museum from the descriptive labels attached to such objects; and, if so, whether he will state the reason for giving up a practice which has been in force since 1853 and supplied the public with interesting and useful information?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The former practice, which had been condemned by a very considerable consensus of opinion for some time past, was finally given up on the recommendation of the Committee of Rearrangement. The prices of objects of art are so frequently affected by circumstances unconnected with their intrinsic value that the statement of prices on the labels is liable to mislead the great majority of the public who are not experts in these matters. It is also impossible to price many of the individual objects which have been bought in collections.
§ Mr. RUNCIMANNo. I have fully considered the matter.
§ Mr. GRANTasked the President of the Board of Education, whether he will state the reason of the delay in relieving the Court of Reproduction at the Victoria and Albert Museum of its present inconvenient and congested condition, seeing that ample space is suitably available for such reproductions in the main northern corridor of the building?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe rearrangement of the art collections as a whole is not yet complete. The work is not of such a character that it can be hurried, and it appears to be desirable that the many valuable originals in the museum should first be dealt with. I am not sure what space the hon. Member refers to as being available for the reproductions in the main northern corridor; but I can assure him that, as soon as the originals have been 818 dealt with, the reorganisation of the reproductions will be proceeded with without unnecessary delay, so far as the available space permits.
§ Mr. GRANTasked the President of the Board of Education if he is aware that the North Court of the Victoria and Albert Museum was not allocated in the official plan of 1909 to the annual exhibition of works from schools of art; and, if so, will he explain why was not the exhibition of 1910 held there?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANI do not understand what plan the hon. Member refers to as "the official plan of 1909." I am not aware that any decision to the effect referred to in the question has ever been authoritatively taken, nor that the matter has ever gone beyond the existence of an understanding that, if the National Competition Exhibition were to be accommodated in the museum premises at all, the North Court should be reserved for this purpose in place of the Octagon Court and West Court, as had previously been suggested. Owing to the rearrangement of the collections and work incidental thereto, the North Court was in any case not available for the purpose in 1910.