The following communication dated 25 September 2012 was sent to Liberate Tate on 5 October:
Dear Liberate Tate,
I am writing to you following my email dated 11 July 2012. In that email, I described the process for responding to all potential acquisitions, whether offered as a gift or for purchase, through which offers are presented to out trustees for their consideration either through the Collections Committee, which has delegated authority from the board to decide upon acquisitions, or at the Board itself when there is no Collections Committee scheduled within a time during which a response might reasonably be expected. On this occasion, the Collections Committee is not scheduled to meet until later in the autumn and so your proposal was taken to the Board in September.
As Tate’s process requires, the proposal was first discussed by Tate’s internal Collections Group, which recommended to the Board that – in line with the current strategy, commitments and priorities for the Collection and the size of the object in relations to existing pressures on collection care – the offer of The Gift is declined, but that supporting material comprising performance documentation and related images, be accepted into Tate’s archive as a record of the action at Tate Modern. The Board discussed this recommendation and formally agreed to adopt it as the Board’s decision.
The Blade will therefore be made available for you to collect from a storage facility in London between 2 October to 16 October. If you wish to collect the item, please let us know by contacting [name of Acquisitions Coordinator] at Tate Britain, and we will confirm with you the details of the collection point. If you do not wish to collect the item, or Tate does not hear from you before 16 October we will make arrangements for the item to be recycled.
Thanks you for making available the extensive documentation of your action which will now be available to scholars in our Archive.
Yours sincerely,
Sir Nicholas Serota
Director, Tate
