Minutes of a meeting of the Board held on Friday 27 May 2022
in the Aula Magna of the Casón del Buen Retiro, Museo Nacional del Prado
Present
John Booth (Chair)
Diana Berry
Catherine Goodman
Katrin Henkel
Sir John Kingman
James Lambert
Rosemary Leith
David Marks
Dounia Nadar
Tonya Nelson
Stuart Roden
Professor Molly Stevens
In attendance
Dr Gabriele Finaldi - Director
Dr Caroline Campbell - Director of Collections and Research
Paul Gray - Chief Operating Officer
Victoria Hayes - Secretary to the Board and Head of Governance
Andy Hibbert - Director of Finance
Jayne Knowles - Acting Director of Public Programmes and Partnerships
Baylee McKeel - Governance Administrator
Chris Michaels - Director of Digital, Communications and Technology
Julie Molloy - Managing Director of National Gallery Global Ltd (NGG)
Anh Nguyen - Director of Development
Javier Solana - Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museo Nacional de Prado, at the beginning of the meeting
Miguel Falomir - Director of the Museo Nacional de Prado, for item 1
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museo Nacional del Prado welcomed the Board and Executive Committee of the National Gallery and introduced the Prado’s Director. He addressed the Board before leaving the meeting.
1. Presentation on the Prado’s bicentenary in 2019 and the challenges ahead
1.1. The Director of the Prado gave a presentation on the museum’s bicentenary which had been celebrated during 2019, and the impact it had made nationally. He outlined the museum’s plans looking towards the future.
2. Declarations of interest
2.1. A Trustee declared an ongoing interest arising from living in close proximity to the Gallery, in relation to work beginning on any capital projects.
2.2. Another Trustee declared a potential interest through her work as a Trustee of the Attingham Trust for Historic Houses.
3. Minutes of the meeting held on 24 March 2022 and matters arising
3.1. The Minutes were approved.
3.2. The Chair and Director reported back on matters arising, which had been completed or were in progress.
4. Loans out paper
4.1. The loans out paper was approved.
5. Looking to the future, the National Gallery into the 2030s
5.1. The Chair said that the pandemic had stalled previous discussions, which had begun in 2018 and which were unfamiliar to many Trustees who had not been on the Board then. He hoped the papers would initiate a period of reflection on what lay beyond the bicentenary in 2024.
5.2. The Director gave a presentation. He said that visiting the Prado provided a timely opportunity to look beyond the Gallery’s bicentenary, although the ideas being presented today were preliminary and focussed only on three areas – the Collection, the Estate and the Finances, with others to be discussed at a later stage.
5.3. Information has been excluded under s.22, s.36 and s.43 FOI 2000.
5.4. The Director of Collections and Research gave a presentation.
5.5. Information has been excluded under s.43 FOI 2000.
6. Update on NG200 capital projects
6.1. The Director gave a presentation, which included some new designs which had been endorsed by the Masterplan Committee.
7. Annual NGG report
7.1. The Chair of NGG reported that the Managing Director of the Company would be stepping down in the autumn and asked that the NGG Board’s sincere appreciation of her long and distinguished career be noted. He said that he would report on her successor at the next meeting.
7.2. The Managing Director gave a presentation.
8. Trustee introduction to Annual Review
8.1. The introduction was approved.
9. Any other business
9.1. The Director gave a presentation on three potential acquisitions which were being discussed by the curatorial department.
9.2. He updated the Board on some changes to staff.