A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Today I spoke at a conference about Corporate Art. Felt slightly odd amongst experts from the big boys like AXA, AIA, Deutsche Bank etc given that the British Council Collection is not corporate and has a miniscule acquisitions budget, but actually it worked quite well. The BC's Collection has over 8,500 works by hundreds of artists, ranging from Lucien Freud's Girl with Roses bought in 1948 for the princely sum of £157 (now worth millions) to a bag of rubbish by Michael Landy.

PR opportunity aside, it was interesting to see how the culture of corporate art is changing from simply being seen as investment opportunities to making collections available to the public. It was also intriguing to chat with Mark Tucker, CEO of AIA insurance group as it turned out he used to play for Wolves in the late 70s.