Tut tut, Tate!

The Charity Commission has politely criticized the Tate Gallery for buying works of art by its own trustees without asking permission of the Commission, which regulates charities in the UK. The artworks include Chris Ofili's The Upper Room - 13 paintings of rhesus monkeys on elephant dung supports - bought for £600,000 in 2004 when Ofili was on the Tate's board of trustees. £600,000 to a trustee for a load of elephant dung! Is this corruption or what? No, it's dung, the stock-in-trade of Tate Modern. What a waste of taxpayers' money! And the Tate spokesman on BBC TV News today seemed quite blasé about it all. Bit of a whoopsie, folks, was his attitude. Why on earth did the Charity Commission allow the Tate to keep its status as a charity? Why hasn't somebody at the Tate been sacked? And why has the Tate been allowed to keep its vastly overpriced dung? For Goodness' sake! I can remember the days when somebody at the top would have resigned over a scandel like this. Nobody is accountable any more, and the new men at the top don't have the decency to resign. Sir Nicholas Serota is the Tate Director. Come on, Sir Nick, show some decency. Resign!