Blair offers No 10 as home for Scottish art

David Lister,Arts News Editor
Thursday 14 August 1997 23:02 BST
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The Prime Minister Tony Blair wants to hang Scottish paintings and portraits of Scottish heroes on the walls of Downing Street as a reminder of his Edinburgh school days.

Mr Blair, who attended the city's Fettes School, is particularly keen that a portrait of his own hero Sir Walter Scott, the author of Ivanhoe, is given pride of place at No 10, and that there is a greater representation of Scottish art.

The director of the National Galleries of Scotland, Timothy Clifford, has had private talks with Mr Blair about Scottish art, and increasing the Downing Street collection. He will have to consult his trustees on whether paintings can be taken from the walls of the Edinburgh galleries or from the mass of Scottish paintings currently in storage.

The Prime Minister has told Mr Clifford that he wants a portrait of Scott. But he stipulated that he did not want a portrait of the poet Robbie Burns. He did not give any reason for excluding Burns from his wish list, but as an avid nationalist with an insatiable taste for drink and women, he is not natural new Labour material.

Mr Clifford is in overall charge of the National Gallery, Portrait Gallery and Modern Art Museum. An exhibition of the 18th-century portrait painter Henry Raeburn is packing in crowds at the Edinburgh Festival but there is likely to be opposition from National Gallery trustees to a Raeburn leaving the public collections to go south.

Mr Blair's interest in Scottish culture is exciting reciprocal interest in the Scottish capital. At the Royal Museum, Sheila Brock, campaign officer, said yesterday she would be happy to supply objects from Scottish history for 10 Downing Street and would be talking to Mr Blair.

Mr Clifford said that to have a prime minister, chancellor and foreign secretary with an interest in Scottish culture was unique in his experience.

Mr Clifford is himself promoting plans for a gallery devoted to Scottish art in Glasgow. The pounds 31m project could open within five years and contain a thousand paintings by Scottish artists.

At present the National Gallery in Edinburgh has only seven Scottish paintings on display in its permanent collection. "It's tokenism really," said Mr Clifford.

"We have seven-eighths of our collection in store and one has to show the Titians and Cezannes, and the Scottish artists lose out. There is a massive need for a gallery devoted to Scottish art."

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