Backlash as Wallace Collection considers closing library to public | Libraries

More than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling on the management of London’s historic Wallace Collection to reject proposals to close its library and archive to the public.

The active petition was launched by archivists and trade unionists working with staff at the Wallace Collection, in response to senior management’s decision to put the closure to an internal consultation, which ends on 11 February. The petition claims that management wants to focus on “income generation”, and they do not “view the library and archive as part of this”. If the library is closed to the public, two staff members would be made redundant.

Built over the 18th and 19th centuries by the Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the Wallace Collection was bequeathed to the nation in 1897. Containing treasured paintings including Frans Hals’s The Laughing Cavalier, Diego Velázquez’s The Lady with a Fan and Nicolas Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time, it is seen as one of the world’s finest collections of art, armoury, furniture and porcelain. The collection’s library and archives contain material on its holdings.

The petition also questions the legality of a public body closing the library and archive to general use, under the 1958 Public Records Act. On its website, the collection’s statement of purpose includes an aim to “maintain and develop the quality of scholarship and practical skills of the curatorial, collections management, conservation, education, library and archival staff”.

“The collection’s management have not answered our queries adequately, and yet they are rushing to close the archive and library – they are running a consultation which lasts until only 11 February. If they get their way then the archive and library staff will be given only three months’ notice before the service is permanently closed,” says the petition.

The plans “threaten even the ability of the public to consult the library and archive catalogues”, say the archivists, which raises questions over grants received, all of which “were given on the condition of the collection’s rich library and archival collections being accessible to the public”.

A spokesperson for the Wallace Collection confirmed that it was “currently in an internal consultation about some proposed changes to the library and archive which would potentially impact two members of staff. Further details will be released if the proposal goes ahead following consultation.”

Two years ago, it was announced that the Wallace Collection would allow loans to other museums for the first time in 119 years. At the time, director Xavier Bray called the change “a major new chapter”, saying: “For me it is a bit like The Hobbit and you see that dragon just sitting on the treasure, not letting anybody get close to it.”