Walkouts put art sale at risk

Artists and the Royal College of Art are among the victims of the postal strikes. Each year the RCA invites hundreds of world-renowned artists to design postcards, which are then mixed in with others by art students. The whole lot are then put on display and sold anonymously for £40 each. In the past, Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry and David Bailey have taken part. This year's Secret exhibition opens on 13 November.

But some artists' cards have not arrived at the college during the strike, while other artists have not received the postcard on which to create their artwork.

Contributors are finding ways around the problem. The designer Manolo Blahnik requested that someone from the RCA collect his contribution from his London studio. A spokeswoman confirmed that 2,000 cards had been received by the RCA, but up to 700 may still be held up in the postal backlog. "This year has been very tense for us because of the postal strike," she said.