Tate to deaccession '£20m Bacon archive'

June 8 2022

Picture: Copyright Barry Joule, via The Guardian

In The Art Newspaper, Martin Bailey reports on one of the most curious national museum stories of recent years; Tate is to deaccession a Francis Bacon archive given to it almost 20 years ago, at which time it was apparently valued at up to £20m. Now, however, Tate has cast doubt on many of the items said to have been connected to Bacon himself (this follows the Francis Bacon estate casting doubt of the material last year, as reported by Dalya Alberge in The Observer). And though Tate normally cannot deaccession works of art, there are different rules for its archive (as very long-standing AHN readers may remember, from back in 2012). The Bacon material is first to be offered back to its donor, Barry Joule, a friend of the late artist (above).

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