The Royal Opera House will be selling a portrait of its previous chief executive Sir David Webster painted by British artist David Hockney at an auction hosted by Christie's. The painting is believed to have been valued at between £11m and £18m.
The decision to sell the painting comes after the Royal Opera House has suffered what chief executive Alex Beard is referring to as the 'biggest crisis' in its history. The coronavirus pandemic and UK lockdown has meant that the Royal Opera House has lost a huge amount of revenue, and has launched a plan to keep afloat as the pandemic ensues.
As well as selling the painting, the Royal Opera House will be making redundancies, undertaking a major fundraising drive and hopefully receiving a loan from the Treasury's emergency arts bailout fund.
Who is Sir David Webster?
David Webster – the figure in David Hockney's painting – was the chief executive of the Royal Opera House from 1945 to 1970. Before his time with the Royal Opera House, Webster was chairman of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
It was Webster that set up the opera company that is still resident at the Royal Opera House, after he convinced Sadler's Wells Ballet to move its company to the opera house.
He retired from the role in 1970, dying just one year later.
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