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British Airways ‘in talks to sell the art in its lounges’

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According to a report in the Evening Standard yesterday, British Airways has come up with a new way to raise funds – selling off the best of the artwork in its lounges.

The newspaper reports that Sothebys has been employed to value the works, with a view to adding some to an upcoming sale as quickly as possible.  The timing isn’t great, however, with in-person auctions currently suspended and online sales not proving to be hugely successful.

The works are worth more than you think.  The artworks, which will also include some currently hanging on the walls of the Waterside head office, include pieces by Bridget Riley, Damien Hurst and Peter Doig.  At least one is worth over £1 million.

Whilst not mentioned in the article, the BA art collection is known to also include works by Patrick Heron, David Nash, Chris Ofili, Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume and Donald Judd.

In one of the more bizarre British Airways quotes I’ve seen recently, a source is quoted by the Standard as saying:

“We are in a very dark place.”

PS.  If the worst comes to the worse, BA can always raise a few pounds from these:

As you can see here, these Moooi lamps go for £4,700 each when new ….


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Comments (57)

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  • Sunguy says:

    I’m not an art lover – at all……BUT – if BA help out UK artists and help promote their work, then I’m all for it in many ways…..especially if it gives UK artists a world forum to compete on….

    These pieces you show here – I couldn’t give a flying faff about – if it makes them a few pennies to sell them, then why not – and in replacement, they should give these spaces over to displaying up and coming British artists…..either on-loan for a month at a time or buying them to help the artists out….

    However, I was a little disappointed to see the removal of some of the BA heritage collection from the displays between the Concorde lounge and the spa in T5 -(its now just dead space) its always nice to have something to look at….especially telling the history of the airline…..it would be nice to see more of that in spaces too……

  • Jim Kavanagh says:

    It’s a very good idea – now to empty our national galleries to pay for the COVID costs.

  • Anna says:

    Oh lord, does that also mean they’ll be serving prosecco in the Concorde lounge?! (On my one and only visit last year I overheard the barman saying sniffily to an American lady that “we don’t serve prosecco, only champagne.”

  • Steve says:

    I’ll give them £30 for the lot

  • Sumira A says:

    Is there a date for the auction?

    • Rob says:

      No. These things take quite a while to get selected, photographed, catalogued etc and the sale calendars are fixed a year in advance so you need to slot into an existing auction of relevant material. For the high value items Sothebys will even lend the pictures to potential buyers for a few days so they can see how it looks on their wall.

      • Hugh says:

        Oh dear! I shall miss that arty je ne sais quoi as I champ my way through the beef tajine. Here’s somewhere that won’t be flogging off its modern art any time soon: Hotel Castell, Zuoz, Switzerland. Features a neon sign IT’S FREEZING IN HERE (by David Shrigley) and Skyspace Piz Utèr (by James Turrell). Or how about an IHG Indigo night? Grand Hotel des Arts, Verona. With works by Ciardi, Cascella, Minguzzi, Manzù, Purificato, Murer, Arnoldi and many others. Yay!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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