THE Charity Commission is looking into the purchase by the Tate of a piece by a Turner Prize winner who is also one of the gallery’s trustees.

Sir Nicholas Serota, head of the Tate, has written to his government masters denying accusations of an apparent conflict of interest. In a letter seen by The Times, the director set out to justify the board’s decision to pay Chris Ofili £600,000 for his The Upper Room series of paintings with reliefs of elephant dung.

Guidelines from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport state clearly that “even the perception of a conflict of interest in relation to a board member can be extremely damaging to the body’s reputation”.

The Charity Commission, whose guidelines note that conflicts of interest may include “direct financial gain or benefit to the trustee”, said yesterday that it would be writing to the Tate trustees for an “evaluation” of the matter. A commission spokeswoman said that an evaluation was one step away from an investigation, which would take place if there was evidence of wrongdoing.

The Tate has a policy of not buying trustees’ works “other than in exceptional circumstances”. But in his letter of September 8 to the Permanent Secretary, Sir Nicholas says: “In this instance, the board took the view that this work was of such power and significance that an exception had to be made . . . The board debated the matter very carefully and fully . . . with full awareness of possible conflict of interest issues.”

He also assured the department that the board had previously made such an exception “on only one occasion”, when it acquired work by Michael Craig-Martin in 1997.He omitted to mention that the Tate had bought work by Bill Woodrow while he was a trustee, although negotiations began before he took up the post.

Sir Nicholas’s letter continued: “I fear that certain elements of the press may use the acquisition to question the board’s actions, both in relation to the principle of purchasing the work of serving trustees and in the light of the controversial nature of his work.”

The Permanent Secretary agreed that, as Ofili had left the room during the discussions, due care was taken to avoid any conflict of interest.

THE OFILI FILE

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