A flurry of emails has arrived in my inbox about a story in yesterday's Guardian. Turns out that BGP owner and new knight Sir John Madejski is selling off a rare Degas sculpture of a ballet dancer.
The price tag for the artwork is set at £12m. So, one Degas = two Lithomans? Perhaps more likely one-and-a-half given the £/€ rate. Or 37.5% of a BGP debt write-off? If the sculpture reaches its estimate it will represent a near three-fold return on the original price Madejski paid for the piece in 2004. A somewhat better return than has been achieved by his printing interests of late. The sale is apparently unrelated to the credit crunch, according to the Guardian's report. Perhaps it's tax efficient, do Sirs get tax perks? As one observer noted, "I bet he wishes he'd bought more bronze ballet dancers and fewer hairy-arsed printers with all those squillions".
I cannot, of course, condone the derogatory hairy aspect of the above comment.
