It’s not easy being a bank that owns art now that many banks are owned by the government in the US and UK. The Wall Street Journal’s Financial News service has a story today about the Royal Bank of Scotland being under pressure to sell its holdings of art. The collection is valued at between £10 and £15 million. RBS acquired much of the art when it bought NatWest and most was on display in branches and offices. Now that many of those are being closed and the art market is improving, there are calls for RBS to realize some value from the art. Even so, it’s not easy to sell art when you’re a quasi-government institution. Suddenly there are other constituencies to think about as one spokesman for the bank made clear:
“We will not sell any pieces of art that are of heritage or historical importance. Nor will we sell pieces which national galleries or charities may wish to exhibit. Once we have worked through this process, if there are works of art that do not fall into either of these categories we may consider selling some works. Any decision on sales will be taken with an eye to market conditions to obtain the best value for our shareholders.”
RBS Eyes Art Disposals (Wall Street Journal)
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