Madam, – So Robert Ballagh metaphorically stamps his foot (October 20th) and suggests that all Irish artists should immediately close their accounts in the Bank of Ireland as a sort of protest/boycott over the sale of its art collection. To what end? It is a giant leap to assume that the institution in question displays no confidence in Irish art simply because it feels compelled to raise a few bob (no pun) to meet its mainly self-inflicted debts.
I trawled through my memory to try to recall an occasion when an Irish artist refused a commission or sale to an institution because of possible reservations or doubts about its future commercial decisions, but failed to think of one. Art collections have been sold by kings and commoners across the years and this will continue to happen for myriad reasons, not least because of that old economic reason, supply and demand. The paintings and sculptures in question will no doubt find alternative good homes should their standard be at a sufficiently high level.
Mr Ballagh should stick to the day job, and leave matters relating to the disposal of art products to those who actually own them. This is how democracy normally works. – Yours, etc,