The ArtFund announced its Museum of the Year winner
The National Portrait Gallery was one of the 5 finalists.
I hoped they would have won so they could have spent their prize money on their disastrous PR dept and curatorial team.
Since correcting the Tissot portrait of Edward Fox-White's label and taking out any mention of our family, most importantly any reference to assumed financial links with slavery compensation. I have tried to get the museum to issue a public retraction on any of their various social sites or bulletins. It became a National story in the U.K. In a hurried response to The Times article (17 April 2024), the PR dept for the museum stated “We thanked him for his feedback and would be very happy to continue to discuss the matter with Gajadhar if there are further areas of concern.”
So, to see how happy I waited and politely wrote, I do have areas of concern. I was met with stony silence.
Rather than get into another extended round of slow email tennis again, I took a page out of ‘contemporary relational dynamics’.
I had been ‘gaslighted’ and ‘ghosted’ or ‘cold sholdered’ and so I did what any self-respecting ‘one-night stand’ would do. I reached out to the NPG’s ‘new squeeze’, The ArtFund.
I told them about my concerns, and even directed them to some press, I asked if they might have the NPG to get back to me. I lit the fuse.
Time passed, and The ArtFund eventually replied, informing me they couldn’t get involved. That was fine, as a day before I got a letter from the interim Director of the NPG. He dug in and said I could write to the Board of Directors if I chose to take the complaint further. The Board would do some internal housekeeping to ensure their procedure was followed, however that would be that.
Refusing to address any public retraction, they maintain their position without accountability. This may be due to some unfounded litigation fears, maybe if this were the States lawyers would have been already involved. It’s the U.K.
So why do I insist on a public retraction? If you place information in a public forum such as a gallery, you should retract it when it is found to be speculative fiction. Not double down.
My quiet protest is also for Edward Fox-White just because he can’t, and this blog is an exercise in karmic balancing.
Spoiler alert: Young V&A Museum won, cos they deserved to.
