The Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro has admitted it could sacrifice two pieces from its collections in a "financially motivated" bid to raise £3 million.
Owners the Royal Institution of Cornwall and the Charity Commission have approved the plans after experts picked the pair of paintings – Bondage by Ernest Normand and The Sea Maiden by Herbert Draper – for potential sale by auction.
Ernest Normand, Bondage (1895)
"In common with independent museums, our investment income has gone down," said museum director Hilary Bracegirdle, speaking in a statement by the RCM aimed at justifying the proposals to ruling bodies the Museums, Libraries and Archives council (MLA) and the Museums Association.
"None of the Cornish collections were considered [for disposal] and no item whose sale would damage the integrity of the collection was proposed."
Herbert Draper, The Sea Maiden (1894)
The MLA was critical of similar plans by Southampton City Art Gallery in September 2009, although it may be more sympathetic to the RCM, which was forced to make 12 redundancies last year..
Operating costs at the Museum are estimated to reach more than £1.3 million each year. The MLA's Renaissance grant currently provides 60% of the centre’s funding, but organisers have been ordered to reduce this dependency to 45%.
"The MLA has been in close contact with the RCM in recent weeks concerning the organisation's proposal to sell two paintings from its collection,” said an MLA spokesman.
“We will want to see all appropriate avenues explored and procedures followed."
