Paper Has Priorities Right
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The Houses of Parliament has lost a number of pieces of art. The Lancashire Telegraph headline:
Barbara Castle art among pieces missing from Westminster
With the subhead:
A satirical cartoon depicting Baroness Barbara Castle as Florence Nightingale is among dozens of missing artworks from the Houses of Parliament.
While other news stories give prominent coverage to a photograph of former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and a 19th-century engraving of abolitionist William Wilberforce the Lancashire Telegraph’s focus is on the cartoons that have gone missing. From Jack Stott’s report:
The cartoon of Baroness Barbara Castle of Blackburn is one of more than 65 artworks that have been misplaced since the start of 2024.
Parliamentary authorities believe the losses may have occurred during works on the estate, but none of the items have been officially written off.
Five pieces have been recovered since the start of the year, including a work by 19th-century cartoonist Isaac Cruikshank.
Among the missing artworks by living artists is a cartoon by Martin Rowson, drawn during the 1995 Conservative Party leadership contest.
From Mark Brown at The Guardian:
The Rowson cartoon is from the 1995 Tory leadership campaign when John Major resigned as party leader, telling opponents to “put up or shut up”. It shows Major seeking to lance the literal “boil” of the contest, as his deputy Michael Heseltine and challenger-apparent Michael Portillo look on.
Both The Telegraph and The Guardian talked to cartoonist Martin Rowson. From The Guardian:
Rowson said: “It’s a shame but it’s hardly the crown jewels – and the point about cartoon originals is that they’ve been published already: the artefact is probably the impression in the newspaper, as that’s its ticket to posterity.
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