This post was originally published on artnews.com
The British Council, the UK’s international organization for cultural relations, is considering selling some of its impressive art collection to offset its £197 million debt.
The organization holds some 9,000 works of 20th- and 21st-century British art, including paintings by David Hockney, Lucian Freud, and John Akomfrah. With no permanent exhibition space, around 20 percent of the works are on display in the UK or abroad at any one time.
The council took out an emergency loan from the government to the tune of £250 million during the pandemic—and still owes most of it. The Art Newspaper reported that the council is paying around £14 million a year on the commercial interest applied to the loan. As a result, it has asked the UK’s foreign, commonwealth, and development office (FCDO) to take some financial pressure off by reducing the loan payments. The council has also asked for an increase in government strategic funding (money given by one level of government to another) from 2026 onward, which totaled £163 million in 2024.
The British Council earns about 85 percent of its turnover through teaching and exams, partnerships, and tendered contracts. It also receives strategic funding from the FCDO (about 15 percent of its income).
The chief executive of the council, Scott McDonald, told the Guardian that he was considering slashing the organization’s budget by £250 million, laying off hundreds of staffers, and pulling the organization’s presence in up to 40 countries. He said he offered the council’s art collection to the UK government in return for writing off the loan.
For its part, the government said it “remains committed to recovering the loan once [the council’s] finances allow.”
Around half of the 9,000 works in the collection reportedly cannot be sold due to legal restrictions. However, the Times wrote that McDonald told a parliamentary select committee that is “exploring what we can sell of the 50 percent that is not restricted.”
As for which works could potentially be sold, a British Council spokesperson said that no decisions have been made. “A British Council that is in retreat is a blow to the UK in the competition for influence on the world stage,” the representative said. “We are taking all steps necessary to secure the long-term financial sustainability of the British Council, including a review of our assets.”
This council’s finances are being squeezed amid the UK government’s recently announcement of the formation of a new Soft Power Council, which ministers said brings together “soft power and foreign policy experts to champion a new, hard-nosed approach to soft power.”