§ 33. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Secretary to the Treasury if his attention has been drawn to the Annual Report, to 31st March, 1956, of the Tate Gallery and to the expressed desire of the Trustees of 1090 that gallery to secure a purchasing grant of £20,000 notwithstanding the fact that of the, approximately, 4,000 pictures now in the Tate Gallery only, approximately, 1,200 are on public exhibition; and if he will make a statement of his policy on this matter.
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Henry Brooke)Yes, Sir, and I would refer the hon. and learned Member to the statement I made in the debate on a Supplementary Estimate for the National Gallery on 19th March last, to which I can only add that I should not wish to anticipate next year's published Estimates.
§ Mr. HughesAs a matter of good policy and common sense, does the Minister not realise that these pictures should be handed over to some gallery that is ready, able and willing to exhibit them publicly, and that not to do so places the Trustees in the invidious position of not being able to carry out their trust to exhibit the pictures publicly?
§ Mr. BrookeI do not think that the Trustees feel in an invidious position. I am not sure that the hon. and learned Member is aware that several hundred of the other pictures are already on loan and on public exhibition.
Mr. DugdaleWhile not wishing to enter into the very interesting controversy taking place between the hon. and learned Member for Aberdeen, North (Mr. Hector Hughes) and the Financial Secretary, will the right hon. Gentleman give the most favourable consideration to the request of the Trustees that they should have further funds, and will he assure them at the same time that they may allow some of the pictures which they have, and which they are not able to put on exhibition, to be used in the provincial galleries where they would be of great value?
§ Mr. BrookeI said during the debate on the Supplementary Estimates that I was proposing to undertake a further review of the position against the time when the economic situation improves. I should like the right hon. Gentleman and the House to know that there are already about 300 pictures from the Tate Gallery on loan and on exhibition in provincial galleries and elsewhere.
§ Mr. SnowIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that there are literally hundreds of small galleries in poor parts of the provinces which would welcome the loan of some of these pictures at little or no cost to the Treasury?
§ Mr. BrookeThe Trustees have power to lend. I would suggest that the managers or trustees of the galleries the hon. Member has in mind should approach the Tate Gallery Trustees and see whether or not a loan is practicable.