Nearly £100,000 spent on Downing St paintings as Boris Johnson planned to slash benefits

2021-08-09T13:58:00Z

The extravagance was revealed as millions of low-income families brace themselves for Rishi Sunak’s £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit and after the Government imposed a real-terms pay cut for teachers and police officers last month.

Accounts show £70,200 was spent on a painting by Belfast-born artist Cathy Wilkes, 54. The untitled 24in by 28in work is egg tempera on linen.

A second piece, costing £18,775 from photographer, video and installation artist Willie Doherty, has also gone on display.

It is a set of four black-and-white photographs called Ashen, Restless, which show vegetation and their shadows on a grey concrete background.

£70,200 was spent on this untitled painting by 54-year-old Belfast-born artist Cathy Wilkes

Downing Street was unable to say how much public cash was spent on the art but insisted the “majority” came from donors.

Labour MP Neil Coyle said of the Prime Minister: “His selfishness and desire for luxuries for himself whilst cutting support and income for others is a sign of the sickness at the heart of his Government.”

The £18,775 artwork by photographer, video and installation artist Willie Doherty

It comes after a row over the luxurious redecoration of Mr Johnson’s private flat in Downing Street, which he shares with his wife Carrie, baby Wilfred and dog Dilyn.

BJ loves spending other people’s money … :wink:

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Omah, I think you’ll find that the painting and photographs now belong to the nation as a whole, not Boris as an individual. It has long been the practice for paintings to be borrowed from galleries around the country and used for displaying in government buildings so I don’t see why you should be trying to stir things up. In any case the money spent on them came from a specific budget that had NOTHING to do with Universal Credit, or teachers/police pay packets.

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Hi

Spot on Percy.

Its still nowhere near what Claudia Webbes expenses come to :lol:

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That first painting looks like something a child in nursery school made…they would have made a better job…

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It amazes me what some people consider to be art.

I’d hang the first one on my wall. Very pink floyd on acid circa animals.

I meant Meddle not Animals :upside_down_face:

@d00d and don’t forget Obscured By Clouds, another Floyd album with psychedelic cover art.

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