| UPDATED: 15:04, Wed, Dec 23, 2020
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Desmond Shawe-Taylor could become the last person appointed as surveyor of the Queen’s pictures and chief surveyor. The Royal Collection Trust (RCT) has confirmed he is leaving the organisation as part of its restructuring plans and his post is to be made lost and held in abeyance .
The Queen has made her chief art adviser redundant amid restructuring plans undertaken during the pandemic, axing the role created under Charles I.
It is understood Desmond Shawe-Taylor could be the last Surveyor of the Queen s Pictures after departing the role under the voluntary severance programme , the Times reported.
The Royal Collection Trust confirmed on Tuesday that Mr Shawe-Taylor, 65, and his assistant Rufus Bird would leave amid cost-cutting plans, with the roles lost and held in abeyance for the time being.
The Trust previously said the pandemic would cost an estimated £64million in lost income in 2020/2021, with a significant reduction in our operating costs and a £22million cash injection necessary to continue its work.
Desmond Shawe-Taylor, who oversaw Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace, is leaving his role
Credit: DT
Alexander Pope, the 18th-century satirist, is not, I confess, a poet I think about all that much. Yet, something he once wrote has stayed with me since studying his elegant yet cut-throat neoclassical couplets at university: “A little learning is a dang’rous thing”.
That line, from “An Essay on Criticism” (1711), flashed into my mind upon hearing that the Royal Collection plans to hold “in abeyance” the time-honoured office of the surveyor of the Queen’s pictures, a post established during the 17th century by that famously art-loving monarch, Charles I, following the departure of the current, charismatic incumbent, Desmond Shawe-Taylor.
Royal Collection Trust / PA Media
It s considered one of the top jobs in the art world, but Desmond Shawe-Taylor might well be the last ever Surveyor of the Queen s Pictures, as per a report in
The Royal Collection confirmed as much to the newspaper, explaining that the move was part of a restructuring process: As part of the Royal Collection Trust restructure, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, surveyor of the Queen’s pictures and chief surveyor, and Rufus Bird, surveyor of the Queen’s works of art, will leave the organisation under the voluntary severance programme.
Advertisement The posts of surveyor of the Queen’s pictures and surveyor of the Queen’s works of art will, for the time being, be lost and held in abeyance. The director of the Royal Collection, Tim Knox, will assume overall responsibility for the curatorial sections, supported by the deputy surveyors of pictures and works of art.
Queen s chief art adviser Desmond Shawe-Taylor out of the picture | News thetimes.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thetimes.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.