Several national newspapers have published critical articles claiming that charities received only a third of money raised from the sale of ceramic poppies displayed at the Tower of London.
In 2014 the Tower of London hosted Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, which saw 888,246 poppies displayed in the moat, and today newspapers including the Daily Mail, The Sun, The Mirror and The Times have published critical articles.
These poppies were sold for around £23m. Figures filed by the artist show that 41 per cent of that amount went to five military charities and a non-profit infrastructure body, Cobseo. The rest went on the costs of construction and installation.
The stories were based on a Sunday Times story which has since been removed from the newspaper's website.
Historic Royal Palaces, the charity which operates the Tower of London, said the figures quoted in the newspapers have been widely available for some time. The accounts of a community interest company of the same name, set up to deliver the project, show that £9.5m of just over £23m was given to charity, including a £1.1m VAT rebate. Most of the rest went in costs, and Paul Cummins, the artist who masterminded the project, has said he did not receive a profit.
The newspapers have also been critical of a private investor who provided a £1m investment to support the project, and is alleged to have almost doubled his money. Ben Whitfield was approached to invest on commercial terms by Cummins.
A Cummins spokeswoman was quoted by The Times as having said yesterday: “To set up the project, the artist entered into a commercial loan through a reputable brokerage firm, in line with what would be expected from any high-risk, large-scale project, the likes of which had never been seen or attempted before. The project would never have been possible without the financial backing of the artist’s investor.”
Related articles
