ART TREASURES.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1928, Page 5

ART TREASURES.

HOUSING IN BRITAIN. UNREASONABLE ECONOMY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Sept. -20. Building schemes, involving a cost of £779,000 for the proper housing of me country’s priceless collections, are recommended by the Royal Commission on National Museums and Galleries, of which Lord d’Abernon is chairman.

The interim reports says that the natjon’s museums and galleries have been treated as the Cinderella of social services, owing to the concentration of. national expenditure solely on essen- ’ tial needs. British collections, it Y claims, are certainly not assessed any-Lj where, and any estimate of the wealth of the nation which ignores them is incomplete. It adds: “Any re«„ liable ostimtae of national treasures is' ; impossible. Nevertheless, eome idea of _ money values may be indicated when’:; we say that one of the smaller Lon- \ don 'collections alone has been esti-A mated by a competent auth -> . "J contain treasures worth £15,000,000.1,5, Any estimate of thA inexhaustible re-4 sources of the larger collections of the-i British Museum, the National Gallery and the Victoria aiid , Albert Museum f must be ' merely speculative.. As one ; instance, 1 r the Elgin marbles to-day are A beyond price, In. ,1816 they (were pur-N chased fx-om Lord Elgin, who had.sav: ed them from crumbling, arid decay y on their original .site, for £35,000.. Numberless .’lnstances, - could bey given : of the immense appreciation in value';of literary or artistic No. better investment of public moneys has, i ever been made.” The Commission considers that economy in the maintenance of art treasures has been pushed beyond the point of reason.