THE BBC was embarrassed last night by e-mails that showed it “invented” a justification for spending £60,000 of licence payers’ money commissioning a Tracey Emin sculpture.
Emin’s Roman Standard sculpture of a bird on a post was bought by the BBC at a time when Mark Thompson, its director-general, was announcing big cost cuts.
Internal e-mails revealed serious doubts within the organisation about spending so much on a sculpture that had no links to the corporation.
An e-mail dated February 22 from senior BBC publicist Janet Morrow to Vanda Rumney, head of communications, gave warning that the commission could create a “sticky situation on the public art front which could blow up”.
Morrow noted that the sculpture “is not connected to a BBC building, nor is it linked in any way to a BBC broadcast or BBC activity — the BBC has purely used licence fee money to create a public sculpture”.
She then said she had “invented” a “plausible line” to justify the commission. Her line, that the BBC should claim it had a long history of commissioning visual art, was later adopted by Alan Yentob, the BBC’s creative director.
More BBC lies here.
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