Nigeria tops the list for missing government artworks

By Tim Walker 1000PM GMT twenty-two March 2010

With David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, already being forced to have cuts in embassies around the world, Bob Dewar, the Man in Nigeria, has found himself perplexing to branch an additional outflow in resources.

Mandrake hears that his posting has the indeterminate eminence of carrying had some-more paintings from the Government Art Collection go blank than any alternative over the past twelve months.

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Official total show that 4 artworks, that have been conservatively valued at �5,600, have assumingly been purloined from the High Commission properties in Lagos and Abuja.

David Pugh Evans"s oil portrayal Leaving, that measures 3ft 4in by 1ft 6in, and House Plant by Boyd & Evans are between them. The Government values each at �500.

The greatest design to be private was, however, Untitled fibre unresolved by Peter Collingwood, that is 8ft 5in and valued at �3,000. Evening Menu, a screenprint by Patrick Caulfield, who was well known for his cocktail art canvases, valued at �1,600, was additionally taken.

"Individual pieces do infrequently go missing," says a supervision spokesman. "We are, however, seeking in to the incident in Nigeria to settle what has happened there."

Dewar, who has been remarkable given his appointment in 2007 for his honesty at the Commission"s properties, noticed in a debate not long ago "There is a obvious Nigerian observant that "minds are similar to parachutes they usually duty when they are open"."