EU to buy art from Poland

The European Parliament will purchase art from new member states. The pieces to be acquired from 10 countries for the sum of 157.000 euros are to be permanently exhibited on the premises of the European Union institutions.

READER: Up till now the only possibility of displaying Polish art on the premises of the European Union institutions was during usually short lasting art events; while the only permanent piece coming from Poland to be exhibited in the European Parliament was a sculpture called "United Earth" displayed in Strasbourg.

The glass bowl representing the globe was a gift from the western city of Wroclaw. Now this is about to change in accordance with the official policy of the European Parliament ibegan after the 1st enlargement in 1973 stating that every member state should be represented by its art as well. Peder Kyst, the head of the secretariat responsible for questions in the European Parliament explains.

"The policy of the European Parliament has always been that each of the member states should be represented on its premises by one or more pieces of art to be selected in various procedures. This time we wanted to do it by following the procedure that gives more possibility to the information offices or parliament to be involved in the selection. We wanted to end the procedure by the end of this parliamentary term. We are following the same practice as we have done in the past - more money is set aside for buying works of art from Poland than from Cyprus - it is in accordance with the size of the country".

Genowefa Grabowska is a member of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament. She was among the quaestors of the European Parliament who decided that it was time to introduce art from the new member states.

"We start now the whole procedure - purchases will be carried during almost seven years. We start with the Czech Republic and countries in alphabetic order. Poland is at the end of this stake unfortunately but procedure is very long. We have to choose proper art, the most representative from each country. We will have to cooperate with art galleriers, painters, maybe with people who know what is the most representative and what should be bought. I think that the most important is to get knowledge and to inform our artists that t here is such a possibility".

According to Grabowska, due to budgetary constraints the European Parliament is interested in purchasing mainly contemporary art. But even those can reach sky-high prices. A painting by Wilhelm Sasnal was recently sold at an auction in New York for 216 thousand dollars while works of New York-based artist Piotr Uklanski can cost even 85 thousand dollars a piece. Still, parliamentarians from new member states, including Grabowska, are excited at the idea saying that it is the best way to promote their countries in the European Union.
source:By Danusia Szafraniec, polskieradio.pl