Church officials are working desperately to revive a £15-million deal to safeguard the future of the 12 Zurbarán paintings at Auckland Castle, Co. Durham.
The Church Times reports that Jonathan Ruffer, who offered in April to pay £15 million to the Church Commissioners to keep the paintings in the north-east, announced last week that he was withdrawing his offer.
Mr Ruffer, an investment manager in the City of London, who grew up in Stokesley, near Middlesbrough, blamed “insurmountable” conditions that had been placed on the deal by the Church Commissioners.
Writing in the Church Times, Mr Ruffer describes the First Church Estates Commissioner, Andreas Whittam Smith, and the Commissioners’ Secretary, Andrew Brown, as “decent men who have gone wrong”.
The Church Commissioners have declined to comment in detail on Mr Ruffer’s charges. However, in a letter to Mr Ruffer, sent on Wednesday and seen by the Church Times, the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Tony Baldry MP, writes: “We all hope that the matter is not irretrievable, and that we can press on as planned. . .
“I believe all are committed to achieve the end result that is desired, and I know the Church Commissioners are continuing to work to resolve the outstanding issues. They cannot, however, wave a ‘magic wand’ and bring it all together.”
The original offer from Mr Ruffer promised an unexpected boon to Bishop Auckland, a struggling town in the north-east. As part of the wider deal, Auckland Castle, the historical home of the bishops of Durham, would be transferred to a new trust to allow public access to the 13 paintings, which depict Jacob and his sons, 12 of them by the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán. (One is a later copy.) A further £1 million was offered by Lord Rothschild, a former chairman of the Arts Council.
Mr Ruffer became chairman of the Auckland Castle Project, which was set up to oversee the regeneration of the building, a position he resigned from last week. He said that he had been forced to withdraw his offer because of the conditions imposed by the Commissioners.
According to Mr Ruffer, the deal breakers are these:
• tying the castle deal with the provision of a new see house for the Bishop of Durham, and the development of land owned by the Commissioners near by;
• a request for the payment of a further £1.7 million for the transfer of the freehold of the Castle (even though one estimate suggests that an endowment of £14 million is needed to keep the building running); and
• the retention by the Commissioners of a significant portion of the site, needed by the new trust to generate the income needed to maintain Auckland Castle. (The Commissioners say that there are three protected tenancies on the site.)
Mr Ruffer described the action by the Church Commissioners as “extraordinary”, saying that they had wanted to retain all the income-generating assets in the leasehold. It was, he said, “a Gruyère-cheese lease, with all the best parts missing”.
He could also not agree to a condition that all maintenance and upkeep for the Castle would fall upon the project, a decision he described as “absurd”, as the Scotland wing, a private block at the Castle, needed £1- million-worth of repair work. Mr Baldry wrote, however, that the Commissioners sought “to remove the liability of the building”.
Mr Ruffer has said that he still intends the £15 million to be used to benefit the people of the north-east.
The new Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Justin Welby, has set up a meeting between the Church Commissioners and Mr Ruffer, to take place next Thursday.
Bishop Welby said on Wednesday: “Both the Church Commissioners and Jonathan Ruffer are very committed to trying to make this work and benefit the area. I’m very grateful that they have agreed to meet me next week to discuss the issues, and I’m hopeful that progress can be made.”