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| Northampton Cultural wasteland for Sale |
A night of heartfelt pleas from members of the public could not stop Northampton Borough Council voting in favour of selling an ancient Egyptian statue to help pay for a £14m new museum and art gallery.If Northampton do not want it for its own public collection, they should give it to another public collection, failing which it should go back to Egypt.
By what "right" does a public collection have to put such an object up for sale to private collectors? Especially as it has emerged that a deal has been done according to which, reportedly, for some reason which remains obscure a large amount of the proceeds would be given to the current Marquis of Northampton, the descendant of the traveller who removed the item, looted from a ancient tomb, in the first place.
Let us hope the thing fails to reach its reserve (unlikely) or that the bidding goes to a foreign buyer. Then a temporary export ban can be slapped on it while the British taxpayer is forced to pay through the nose to acquire it back for a public collection. That way it ends up going where it should jolly well have gone in the first place and cash-hungry Northampton and its Marquis get their dosh, but at the same time their noses wiped well-and-truly in the mud. And, let that collection be as far from Museum-pariah Northampton and its Philistine councillors as is humanly possible. Let the council pay through the nose to bus Northampton schoolkids to see it in its new home. Shame on the lot of you. You don't deserve having any culture to look after, perhaps you'll let metal detectorists loot sites on Council land for money too? Ten quid a throw, optional free FLO services thrown into the bargain, I'm sure you could raise a bundle of cash that way.
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