§ Motion made, and Question proposed,
§ 6. "That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £4,800, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1916. for the salaries and expenses of the National Gallery, and of the National Galiery of British Art, Millbank."
§ Mr. MONTAGUI think I can, in a few words, give the House a complete explanation of this Vote. The late Sir H. 1149 Layard left a very valuable collection of pictures to the nation. These pictures being a legacy which was housed in Italy, as the Committee will remember, there was a certain amount of litigation about them. Finally it was found possible to arrange for their transport from Italy, but before they could be exported from that country duty amounting to £5,195 10s. had to be paid. A sum was voted by the House in the financial year 1914–15 for the purpose of paying the duty. It was not then found possible to transport the pictures, but, as it is clearly desirable to get possession of this very valuable collection, and as it is found possible to transport them now, I ask the Committee to re-vote the sum of money for the purpose of paying the duty.
§ Mr. BRYCEI would like to ask the right hon. Gentleman what the rate of duty is, and also whether he thinks it is desirable that these pictures should be brought home at the present time? Is there not very considerable risk of the pictures being torpedoed or submarined if they are transported from the Mediterranean at this moment, less he can get them home through France and Italy? Even then there is some risk. I should think the safest place would be in Italy at the present time. I would like to know what the rate of duty was. I believe that at the time the bequest was left it was not imagined that any duty was going to be paid by the country accepting it. As the right hon. Gentleman says, there was litigation about it, and it cannot be helped. We shall be, I am sure, glad to pay even a larger sum in duty to obtain the benefit of this magnificent collection. There is one picture alone for which it would be worth while to pay the duty—the portrait of the Sultan Mohamed the II., by Gentile Bellini, which, as everyone who has seen it knows, is one of the finest portraits in the world, and will be an immense acquisition to our national collection. A great many of the other pictures also are of value, so that even although it is going to cost a sum of £4,800, or, I believe, a little over £5.000 when everything is included, the country has got it very cheaply and should be glad to pay the money.
§ Mr. MONTAGUI am sorry that I have not at the moment in the House the information as to the rate of duty, but I 1150 will obtain it from the Trustees of the National Gallery, and send it to my hon. Friend in the course of a post or two.
§ Mr. MONTAGUI am not sure. As regards the proposal to remove the pictures, no place is very safe for pictures at present, and on the balance it was thought better to get them out of Italy when we could, rather than risk their remaining away from their destination.
§ Question put, and agreed to.