Arco dealers threaten boycott Rows between fair organisers and selectors have been made public
By Paco Barragán | From issue 210, February 2010 Published online 10 Feb 10 (market)
Madrid dealers pictured after the 18 December meeting where they threatened a boycott (Photo: Monica Patxot/Publico)
MADRID. “Arco, reinvent or die” screamed an El País headline following a series of major disagreements between Arco’s selection committee and Ifema, the fair organisers. On 18 December the selection committee, supported by 70 Spanish galleries including major dealers Helga de Alvear, Soledad Lorenzo and Oliva Arauna, threatened a boycott, while London’s Anthony Reynolds has resigned from the committee, and will not be participating in the fair (17-21 February).
In correspondence later published, the committee accused Ifema president Luis Eduardo Cortés of “interference in their decisions by creating back-door access” after Ifema’s organising committee overrode their rejection of galleries including Manuel Barbié, Manel Mayoral, Haunch of Venison and Galería Cayón (at the time of going to press, Haunch of Venison and Galería Cayón are listed on the website as exhibitors).
In a statement released to the press, Ifema said it had signed an agreement on 12 January stating that “the selection committee will be solely responsible for the selection of the participating galleries”. However, it appears to be an uneasy truce. “Ifema only accepted [our terms] because we are so close to the opening of the fair,” Angel Samblancat of Galería Polígrafa, who is a member of the selection committee, told The Art Newspaper.
A weak Spanish economy has hit Arco hard. Spanish contemporary art collecting has been largely fuelled by institutional buying, which had fallen by 60% in 2008, according to Carlos Guerrero from art market website Arteinformado.
Emerging fairs are also posing a threat, including JUST Madrid, which will coincide with Arco, and the revamped Espacio Atlántico in Vigo, where local Galician institutions and foundations have committed to buy.
Some are sceptical about Arco’s future. “Director Lourdes Fernández lacks the dynamism and ideas to pull Arco through these difficult times,” art critic Carlos Jiménez from El País told The Art Newspaper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pay strike planned at National Gallery in London
Staff at the National Gallery in central London have announced plans to strike next week in a row over pay.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union intend to walk out for two hours on 16 February to protest at their pay rates.
Union members said some of the workers' pay fell 60p short of London's so-called "living wage" of £7.60 an hour.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said staff were "sick and tired" of working long hours.
He said: "Staff who protect important artworks and assist the public are sick and tired of working 50 to 60 hour weeks and having to take second jobs to earn a living wage.
"The refusal by management to reopen pay talks and its imposition of the pay award, just days before Christmas, has left staff feeling angry and betrayed."
A National Gallery spokeswoman said: "The gallery will do all it can to keep disruption to the public to a minimum during the industrial action."
"However we are hopeful that the gallery will continue to open."
London Mayor Boris Johnson set the London Living Wage at £7.60 an hour in May 2009.
The scheme recommends the minimum wage employees should be paid in London.
It is nearly £2 higher than the national minimum wage which is set at £5.80 per hour for workers over 22 years old.
Arco dealers threaten boycott
