Stupid story of the week
December 3 2015
Picture: BBC
The BBC News website has a real gem of a story today:
Universities across England have spent some £20m on art to furnish their buildings or museums over the past five years, a BBC investigation has found.
One work of art, from the University of Oxford, cost £7.9m.
Unison criticised the spend, saying universities were choosing "style over substance".
Universities said the works of art often went on public display and were used for teaching and research.
A Freedom of Information request by the BBC collated the information for 2010-2015. [...]
A Unison spokeswoman said: "Unison is appalled that universities can think about investing £20m in works of art when a significant number of institutions still pay their employees significantly less than the living wage.
"Universities must be more accountable on how they spend their money. The huge amount going on works of art suggests that during these austere times, universities are choosing style over substance.
"As nice as they might be to look at, paintings, statues and sculptures don't enhance teaching, and leave the lowest paid staff on campus unable to have a decent standard of living."
The BBC seems not to have noticed that universites like Oxford and Cambridge also have their own museums (respectively the Ashmolean and Fitzwilliam museums) which are an essential part of their educative mission. And occasionally these museums buy works of art (like the Ashmolean buying that £7.9m portrait by Manet). So it's daft to present this 'invstigation' as some sort of outrage about universities wasting money on art, as if it's for dons' private rooms.
