综合报道，据英国政府人员称，英国大使馆大量的艺术品离奇失踪，价值约数十万英镑。15年来只有一件被找回。
据称，至少50件艺术品下落不明。这些丢失的艺术品中包括现代著名画家贝耶伦(Abraham van Beyeren)的《Beach Scene》，于1970年自英国驻土耳其安卡拉大使馆失窃。另一失踪名画是《Capri Sunrise》，二战期间在英国驻柏林大使馆失踪，但2000年在佳士得拍卖会上重现，当时以10.2万镑成交。
这些丢失的画作有半数是被盗，但更多的是无端失踪。
英国国家艺术品收藏协会每年花费高达50万英镑的费用维护约13500件艺术品。有一半的费用用来购买这些画作送给驻外使馆来“展示英国艺术生活和遗产的生命力和多样性”。去年2月，一副价值8万英镑的画作被找回，这是过去15年里唯一被找回的作品。
Works of art worth hundreds of thousands of pounds are missing from British embassies and other official buildings around the world.
At least 50 paintings from the Government Art Collection are unaccounted for, according to the latest audit. None was insured. Some are known to have been stolen but more than half the total simply disappeared.
Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, has called on the Culture Minister Andy Burnham, to tighten security. “When the whole country is desperately trying to raise money to keep Titian’s Diana and Actaeon painting, it is outrageous that the Government can’t even look after the paintings we do have,” he said. “The Department for Culture, Media and Sport needs to get it together on a problem that has been going on for too long.”
The Government Art Collection contains more than 13,500 works stretching from the 16th century to the present day and includes some of the world’s greatest artists. It receives an annual grant of £500,000, of which about half is spent buying and commissioning art to send to foreign missions to “show the vibrancy and variety of British artistic life and heritage”.
The collection has never been valued but is likely to be worth more than £100 million. In 1988 its value was estimated by its curator at more than £30 million. Since then the collection has expanded and art prices rocketed.
