§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will(a) identify the print missing since 1991 from Admiralty house, (b) place a value on the missing work and (c) name the Minister described by the National Audit Office as a former Secretary of State. [20830]
§ Mr. SproatI have been asked to reply.
The missing picture is a view of Admiralty house drawn in 1970 by Alan Dyson. As the work of an amateur artist it is particularly difficult to give it a commercial value. Our best estimate, given that its purchase price in 1970 was £10, is that its current value may be around £50 to £80. The drawing was placed on display in Admiralty house in 1970. The National Audit Office reference to a Secretary of State—who happened to be my right hon. Friend the member for Bridgwater (Mr. King) in 1991—is irrelevant to the loss of the drawing, which had been of unknown whereabouts since 1982.