My Portrait of a Dead Witch, a 9x7ft painting from 1983, is of the Witch computer built in 1947, which formed part of the exhibition in Birmingham Science Museum and filled a room with banks of valves with its ticker tape print out.

This humorous though ambivalently sinister painting was exhibited at Leicestershire Schools and Colleges show in 1984 and then bought by Leicestershire Local Education Authority as part of the Leicestershire Artworks Collection.

In April 2015 I noticed on the Internet that the painting had been sold in October 2014 at Golding, Young and Mawer auction house in Lincoln. The Sherrier Centre of Leicestershire Heritage Services who administer the Artworks collection informed me that the painting had been on loan to Newbridge High School in Coalville and become their property when the school converted into an academy.

The Newbridge High School Academy Trust auctioned off the painting — bought for £400 in 1984 it was sold for the knock down price of £75.

The Leicestershire Artworks Collection was established in 1947 to provide schools and colleges with original contemporary works of art. Artworks officer Lisa Webb said: “The scheme encourages and explores ways  in which art can be applied across the curriculum and inspires innovative projects involving artists working with students and local communities, which give teachers the confidence to use art in schools in a proactive way.”

I was very proud to be part of this progressive, social and educational art initiative and wondered how a painting bought with public money for a public collection could then be sold off by an academy, which is essentially a private company.

The academy informed me that the painting had been on long-term loan — over 20 years — from Leicestershire Artworks Collection. “When the school converted, the local authority inspected all works of art and removed some items from us. The remaining artwork, including the painting in question, remained with the academy. The academy did not purchase the painting as assets were transferred to the academy upon conversion.”

When a local authority maintained school becomes an academy the academy “inherits” what were local authority controlled assets.

The government estimates that each academy would cost around £20 million of public money to set up and with the land and buildings transferring to the sponsors who run the trust, some sponsors have gained £200 million worth of assets without investing a penny.

However, I would maintain that my painting and the other artworks do not come into this category of local authority fixed assets that the academy automatically “inherits” on conversion but rather these works were on loan to the school prior to conversion and seem to have been donated or gifted to the school by the local authority inspectors after they had finished cherry-picking the artworks on loan to the school.

Why didn’t the inspectors take back all the artworks of their collection? It should have been clear that this new academy did not want these artworks as in less than two years it auctioned them off.  

Wishing to understand the legality of this process, I asked Leicestershire County Council. Astonishingly, they informed me that they have no documentation on purchasing this painting and their solicitor was categorical that they neither owned, nor loaned, nor gifted the painting and that Newbury High School before it became an academy purchased the painting directly — presumably from me — using school funds, presumably in 1984. This contradicts what the Sherrier Centre maintained and the statements of the academy: “Ownership of your painting was passed to us by Leicestershire Arts upon our conversion to an academy.”

The local authority also stated that they have no evidence of the school’s purchase, as records of this purchase would be with the school governors.

Curiously, both local authority and the school (prior to conversion) deny owning this painting, yet both agree that the academy owned the work at the point it was auctioned.

I was at an impasse. The academy has referred me to the local authority if I have any more queries and, likewise, the local authority says I should be speaking to the academy and is refusing me any more freedom of information requests as ownership of the painting has nothing to do with them, which effectively blocks me from further enquires and shuts me up.

Maybe it doesn’t matter who bought the work from me in 1984, the school or the Leicestershire LEA, the local authority would have the overriding ownership of the painting irrespective of who bought it initially. An officer of the Department for Education pointed out that, if the school bought the painting it would have still been owned by the local authority as it was maintained by it.

What should have been transparent was looking rather opaque. However, there does not seem to be anything illegal in what has been happening here, though it is unethical that art bought with public money for a public collection can be sell off or given away to a private company or even just disposed of.

Surely a local authority has a duty of care to its council taxpayers when dealing with public assets.

In 2011, the Conservative-led Leicestershire Country Council had sold off over 300 works from this artworks collection making over £170k. Leicestershire is not the only council to feel strapped for cash in this tough economic climate and sold off the family silver.

Bury raised £1.4 million by selling a Lowry, Bolton sold their Millais and Picasso and Tower Hamlets controversially sold its Henry Moore.

Artists who sell work to public collections should be aware that if the public collection does not operate within the guidelines of the UK Museums Accreditation Scheme and is loaned to non-gallery spaces, it does mean risk of damage and neglect.

The Leicester Mercury on November 9 2009 reported on “Leicestershire County Council trying to track down art collection.” It seems records were misplaced or lost. Councillor Hunt commented: “The difficulty is keeping track of where it all is.”  

There are numerous anecdotal stories of neglect. A friend found a signed limited edition a Jim Dine print in a broken frame stuffed in the back of a kiln cupboard at a school in Leicestershire where he was a supply teacher.

No-one at the school seemed to have a clue what it was and how it got there. Ignorance and philistinism are not words one readily associates with a school or a public art collection but in this case it seems inevitable.

My concern is for the safety of this painting as the price it was auctioned for was ridiculously low — less than the value of the raw materials — I would have bought it back if I had known.

The auction house has eventually passed on my details to the current owner. Over a month has passed and they have not contacted me, I fear the worst that the painting has been cannibalised or is patching some shed roof in Lincoln.

I thought that this painting was safe in a public collection now it seems it is probably destroyed, at best it is lost.

For many artists this abuse of work is familiar and not particularly surprising. My painting is a tiny victim in a much larger story of creeping privatisation by stealth and a government obsessed with handing public assets to the private sector.
 
John Yeadon was course leader MA Fine Art at Coventry University (1973-2002) a visiting lecturer on postgraduate programmes at the Slade, Goldsmiths, Chelsea, Wimbledon School of Art, Glasgow School of Art. In 2012 he founded the Coventry-Dresden Arts Exchange.