Busted: Blair gives public treasure to White House

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Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
Sunday August 28, 2005
The Observer


A bronze bust of Winston Churchill, owned by the British Government Art Collection and paid for by the taxpayer, is at the centre of a row after it was loaned by Tony Blair to George W Bush.

The renowned Jacob Epstein sculpture that sits in President Bush's Oval Office was loaned to the White House four years ago, on orders from Blair's office, in an unprecedented act outside the strict remit of the collection.

The claim, to be made in a BBC radio documentary on Thursday and supported this weekend by art specialists, forms part of new scrutiny of the GAC and its backroom handling of tens of millions of pounds worth of British art each year.

'This is a little-known government arm that still works in surprising secrecy,' said Mark Whitaker, the reporter and presenter of the Radio 4 investigation. 'But it was clear the GAC are rather embarrassed by the loan to Bush. They could only tell me they didn't think it had happened before.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1558172,00.html

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