Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Commissioning which (1) provided assurance on the current position of items recorded as missing from the Art Gallery and Museums collection; (2) identified steps being taken to continue to review their status; and (3) provided detailed information on the robustness of the processes in place to reduce risk to the status of collections going forward.

The report recommended:-

That the Committee –

(a)      notes the controls in place for the management of the Council’s Art Gallery and Museums’ collections;

(b)      notes the improvement actions at Section 3.39 of this report and that the Chief Officer – City Growth intends to undertake research, reconciliation, recording and re-location (where possible) of missing items in the collection; and

(c)      note that the Chief Officer City Growth is to apply for external funding to support the work highlighted above.

 Members asked various questions to gain assurance that the systems in place were robust to prevent similar issues in the future wherein the Chief Officer – City Growth advised that the systems were more robust and that any discrepancies in the future would be easier to identify and manage.

Members also asked questions relating to specific items that were recorded as missing, wherein the Service Manager – Archives, Galleries and Museums provided an update in relation to each of the items, including current values of items.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note the controls in place for the management of the Council’s art gallery and museums’ collections;

(ii)      to note the improvement actions at Section 3.29 of the report and that the Chief Officer - City Growth intended to undertake research, reconciliation, recording and re-location (where possible) of missing items in the collection;

(iii)      to note that the Chief Officer - City Growth was to apply for external funding to support the work highlighted above;

(iv)     to note that Aberdeen City Council’s Art and Museum collection were valued at £198million;

(v)      to agree that the missing items were historic, some going back to the 1980s and agree that despite the theft of 76 objects being reported to Grampian Police in 1989 these objects still remained missing today;

(vi)     to agree that the number of ‘missing’ objects would be expected to reduce as the improvement actions, including research and reconciliation, continued as per (ii) above, alongside existing controls; and

(vii)     to note the assurance that had been given to date and requested officers to provide a Service Update within two committee cycles outlining progress made with reconciling items.