Displaying items by tag: bp

Tate received annual sponsorship of between £150,000 and £330,000 from BP over a 17-year period until 2006, newly released figures show. Tate was ordered to reveal the numbers by an information tribunal last December and was given 35 days to comply. That deadline ended on Monday and Tate released the figures to the campaigning group Platform, which has argued the figures were likely to be “embarrassingly small” and proof that Tate does not need to take money from an oil company accused of trying to “greenwash” its reputation.

The figures show BP provided £300,000 in 1990, going down to £150,000 in 1991. The sponsorship stayed at that level until 1999 before rising to £250,000 for two years and rising again to £330,000 between 2002-06. In total BP, Tate’s longest running sponsor, provided £3.8m over the 17-year period.

Tate has been ordered to give details of its BP sponsorship between 1990-2006, in a case brought by environmental campaigners.

An information tribunal has ruled against the art institution, which was refusing to give details, claiming the information could intensify protests and harm its ability to raise money from other companies.

The case had been brought by the environmental campaigner Brendan Montague, supported by the arts and activism charity Platform, which argues that only when the sponsorship sums are in the public domain can informed debate take place.

A new exhibition sponsored by BP will bring over 70 masterpieces back to the UK after 234 years. The paintings, which originally hung at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, England during the 1720s, were part of Britain’s first Prime Minister Robert Walpole’s collection. The exhibition includes works by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1591-1644) and Rembrandt (1606-1669), which will hang in their original positions in Houghton Hall.

The show opens on May 17, 2013 and has been met with some criticism. Many of the works on view are on loan from the Hermitage Museum and other Russian institutions as well as the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Critics feel that BP’s involvement is meant to benefit its relationship with Russia and that the company chooses its sponsorship events based on business rather than its interest in the art.

After Walpole’s death, his illustrious collection was sold to Russia for $61,355 and was sent from Britain 1779. Houghton Hall is currently owned by Walpole’s descendants and contains the furniture, bronzes, and antiquities that once belonged to the former Prime Minister.

Unilever has ended its sponsorship of Tate Modern's Turbine Hallannual commission that has produced some of the London gallery's most memorable exhibitions.

Tino Sehgal's These Associations, the first live performance piece in the former Bankside power station, will be the final work in the Unilever-sponsored series, which has attracted almost 30 million visitors over the past dozen years. The £4.4m sponsorship deal with Unilever, has led to 13 commissions.