Paintings on loan to ministry go missing
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.More than 200 paintings have gone missing from Ministry of Defence buildings, the Government confirmed yesterday.
The paintings were all lent to the ministry in Whitehall, central London, and related buildings around the country and overseas by the Government Art Collection (GAC), which has supplied government buildings for nearly a century. It currently owns 15,000 works.
A major cataloguing exercise by the GAC has discovered that 206 paintings lent to the MoD over the last 50 years are unaccounted for. Officials say that some were in military and admiralty buildings as well as in Whitehall and have either been stolen or transferred to other buildings without proper records being made.
Military and MoD officials have been asked to check the works of art in their offices against a list of missing items.
A spokesman at the Department of National Heritage, which oversees the GAC, said yesterday that none of the missing paintings had disappeared from ministers' own rooms, and no other government departments had suffered comparable losses.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments