Cate Blanchett Is Turning an Old Cottage Into a Gallery for Her Art Collection But It Will Have to Share Space With Some Endangered Bats
The collector and actress is believed to own artworks by Guan Wei, Paula Rego, and Howard Hodgkin, among others.
Manifesto (2015). Courtesy of the artist and ACMI, Melbourne.
Actress Cate Blanchett wanted to build a space on the grounds of her estate in East Sussex to showcase her impressive collection of contemporary art, but she ran into a problem: The gallery may have to share room with a colony of bats. Maybe some ghosts, too.
Upon submitting plans for the new building last year, which would have seen the two-time Oscar winner knock down a decrepit cottage and shed on the land, surveyors discovered droppings from pipistrelle and brown long-eared bats roosting in the garrets. Because the animals are a protected species, Blanchett is barred from razing the structures without a special license from Natural England.