One of the country’s most popular museums has warned it could have to sell part of its collection because money is running out. At the same time, the SNP government has been accused of back-tracking on a promise of £100 million funding for the arts.
The Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery told MSPs that 14 years of standstill resourcing meant “we will run out of funds in the spring”. It warned: “If we get close to failure the trustees will look to sell some collections to protect the rest. We will lose museum status but we will be left with no alternative.”
The Smith’s plea came as the national arts agency announced it had closed a multimillion-pound fund that helped individual artists because the