Auction Stations
As a Scottish gallery spends £50 million on one painting, one of the country’s best collections of Gypsy wagons is about to broken up and auctioned off. Jake Bowers reports How much? The £50 million painting by Titian How much? The £50 million painting by Titian Many things are described as priceless, but sooner or later their true value is revealed.
When it comes to preserving art and culture, you can tell exactly who values what by how deep they’ll dig into their pockets.
Yesterday, £50 million was stumped up to buy one painting by the Italian painter Titian for Scotland’s National Gallery. Personally, I’ve never valued pictures of plump, naked Greek woodland nymphs that highly, but the fact that £50 million was raised in 5 months to buy it, shows that naked Greek nymphs painted by an Italian master are a highly valued part of British heritage. In a woodland glade a lot closer to home, where Gypsies rather than nymphs once lived, a piece of British heritage is about to be scattered to the winds, yet not a word has been uttered by lovers of art and culture.
The Romany Experience is a remarkable exhibition of English Romany life and wagons housed in a theme park called Paulton’s Park in Hampshire’s New Forest. It was designed and put together by English Gypsy wagon restorer and civil rights activist Len Smith in 1983 to preserve and remember the New Forest Romany culture he spent his life defending. The fact the exhibit was ever a commercially viable attraction in a theme park suggests that many really valued our culture too. But times change and things move on. Len Smith died just over a year ago, and kids these days are more interested in other parts of the park.
On the 18th of March, this remarkable collection will be going under the hammer at the Thimbleby and Shorland auctioneers in Reading. For Richard Mancey, Managing Director of Paulton’s Park, it’s been a “difficult decision”. He says: “The popularity of the attraction has reduced year on year. It’s now the least popular attraction in the park.” He says kids are more interested in rides than Romanies nowadays. Wagon time: A bow top wagon from the Romany Experience Wagon time: A bow top wagon from the Romany Experience. Click to enlarge For local Romany artist and poet Trish Wilson however it’s a tragedy. She says: “As a New Forest descendent of long Romany lines I feel this very personally. It’s my heritage and my culture that is going to go in all directions.” With just 6 weeks before the sale, Trish hopes that somebody will step in to preserve the collection. She says: “Can some source of funding be found in the poor financial climate we have at the moment? The National Trust or English Heritage should step in to keep this very important collection together.” She adds: “Lens restoration and art work on the beautiful vardos (wagons) were real works of art, showing his great love for his subject and his perfectionism.
The decision to use the space for something else has not been taken lightly, but I feel everyone around the country should be made aware of the forthcoming sale.” On the front of the Romany Experience, Len Smith signwrote a phrase in Romany only Gypsies would understand – “Mang on prala!”, which means “keep begging brother”. A year after his death, it will have to be acted upon if his work is to have any chance of remaining on public view. The exhibit’s owners say they’d have discuss any serious approach to buy the whole collection for the nation, but the time is fast running out.