Future of Tate to be decided in November

First Edition

Trustees of the Tate Gallery in London will decide in November how its collections will be presented in future years.

The trustees are considering whether to display separately the collection of British art since 1500, and the collection of international modern art.

At their November meeting, the trustees will also decide whether the two displays should be on the one site at Millbank in London, or on two separate sites, possibly moving the modern art to a site outside London.

Nicholas Serota, the Tate's director, gave a further clue at a lunch with journalists yesterday as to the future of the gallery. He said a likely division of the displays would be British art up to the present day, and international 20th century art including British art of that period.

Thus there would be British works in both displays to avoid accusations that the great modern British painters were wrongly excluded from the international perspective.

Mr Serota added that he did not rule out a new Tate collection outside London, one already existing in Liverpool. It is likely that it would be the modern art that would move, as Mr Serota sees the Tate more strongly identified with the British collection.

Since the Independent discussed the splitting of the displays in August, readers have suggested sites for a new museum of modern art, including Bankside and Battersea Power Station, both on the south bank of the Thames in London.