Meeting held Thursday 30 October 2008
Present
Mark Getty (Chairman)
Simon Burke
Professor David Ekserdjian
James Fenton
Lady Heseltine
Michael Hintze
Lord Kerr
Professor Mervyn King
Patricia Lankester
John Lessore
Lady Normanby
Ranjit Sondhi
Apologies
Professor Dame Julia Higgins
Caroline Thomson
In attendance
Dr Nicholas Penny (Director)
Martin Wyld (Director of Conservation)
Kate Howe (Secretary to the Board)
Carol Plazzotta (Myojin Curator of 16th Century Italian Painting) for items 1 and 4
Luke Syson (Curator of Italian Paintings 1460-1500) for item 1
Pictures for treatment
1. The Board saw in the course of treatment 'View of the Venetian Lagoon with the Tower of Malghera' by Francesco Guardi (NG 2524).
The Board approved the treatment proposed for 'The Virgin and Child in a Mandoria with Cherubim' by a Follower of Pietro Perugino (NG702) and saw for information prior to treatment 'The Triumph of Love' by Titian (M1298 Ashmolean Museum Oxford).
Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising
2. The Board approved the minutes of the meeting held on 2 October 2008. They were later signed by the Chairman.
Director’s report
3. The Director reported that visitor numbers in September had dropped back, in line with other institutions, from the unusually high figures in July and August. The initial numbers for the 'Renaissance Faces' exhibition were good, and the exhibition had been well received critically.
Proposed acquisitions - Bridgewater Titians
4. Information has been excluded under s 43 FOI 2000
Report of the Nominations Committee
5. The Board noted the minutes of the meeting of the Nominations Committee held on 2 October 2008. The Chairman reported that the Board would need to find two new members for appointment in the Spring of 2009.
The Nominations Committee recommended that a search should be made for someone with experience in the business or financial sectors, who might chair the Audit and Finance Committees and that it would also be desirable to strengthen the Board with the addition of a trustee who could help the Gallery to reach a wider public. The Board approved these recommendations.
The Chairman reported that the search process would be similar to that conducted earlier in the year, and that headhunters would be used.
Picture movements
6. The Board noted the report on picture movements.
The Director drew attention to the list of paintings lent to the Picasso exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris. Although a version of that exhibition would be coming to the Gallery in spring 2009, the Director drew attention to the substantial differences which would exist between the current exhibition in Paris and the exhibition at the Gallery.
Any other business
7. There being no other business, the Chairman declared the meeting closed.
Copies of previous Board minutes can be obtained from the Libraries and Archive department.
Confidential and sensitive information has been excluded from these published minutes in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000