§ Mr. FauldsTo ask the Minister for the Arts, whether he will publish in theOfficial Report the attendance figures for 1987 reported by the national museums and galleries in England for which he is responsible, broken down into the individual institutions but comprising their outstations, with figures in each case of the percentage increase or decrease on the attendance figures for 1986; and whether, in the case of such museums or galleries as charge for admission, he will in addition specify the number of tickets sold.
§ Mr. LuceI will reply substantively to the hon. Member as soon as information on 1987 attendance figures at the national museums and galleries is available.
§ Mr. FauldsTo ask the Minister for the Arts, pursuant to his answer of 14 December 1987,Official Report, column 376, whether (a) the sales of items from the national museums to which he refers took place by public auction in the United Kingdom and (b) the identities of the vendors of these items were specified in the relevant sale catalogues.
§ Mr. Richard LuceThe information requested is as follows:
(a) (b) Institution Items sold by public auction in the United Kingdom Identities of vendors specified in relevant sale catalogues British Museum Yes Yes British Museum (Natural History) No Not applicable National Maritime Museum No Not applicable Victoria and Albert Museum Yes No The British museum (natural history) sold a set of nine Victorian bound volumes of fern specimens from New 477W Zealand in December 1987. Due to the specialised nature of the collection, the volumes were offered to selected individuals known to have an interest in the subject.
The national maritime museums sold a duplicate chart of the Orkney Islands (c. 1946) to Thames Television in January 1987, and a microscope to the Whipple museum of the history of science, Oxford in December 1987. This item had been on loan to the museum for some time.