A sculpture of the reputed founder of Invergordon originally bought by a town council for £5 in 1931 could now be sold for up to £2.5 million.
The 'Bouchardon Bust' was discovered by local councillor Maxine Smith in 1998 in an industrial estate in the village of Balintore, Easter Ross.
She said at the time she believed it may have been in the shed for several decades before she uncovered it.
The 'Bouchardon Bust' was discovered by local councillor Maxine Smith in 1998 in an industrial estate in the village of Balintore, Easter Ross.
She said at the time she believed it may have been in the shed for several decades before she uncovered it.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:05 Good morning, I'm Alison Campsey. I'm the Heritage Writer for the Scotsman and I'm here
00:10 this morning with Councillor Maxine Smith. Good morning Maxine and thanks for joining us.
00:15 Good morning.
00:16 Good morning. So Maxine's here today because she was at the heart of a very interesting
00:21 discovery which was made about 25 years ago and Maxine it was then that you discovered
00:27 a small marble bust in a council shed in Ballintore, is that right?
00:32 Yes, that's right, yes.
00:34 And you kind of found this by accident and the bust was kind of almost found, you know,
00:39 it was by chance that you came across it, is that correct?
00:42 Yeah, I was actually looking for the Provost's robes and chains so I kind of made some enquiries
00:49 and was told try this shed which I thought was very strange. The shed was only held fastened
00:55 with a padlock so anybody could have broken into it. So when in the second door there
01:01 was a doorstop this white marble bust but I didn't really look at that at the time.
01:05 I was excited because I found the chains and robes and also some pictures that I thought
01:09 looked expensive. It was only after taking photos and in those days it was digital, photos
01:15 on a camera, that somebody said what is that white marble thing, it looks like marble on
01:20 the floor.
01:22 Hi, and so we now know that this marble bust is actually extremely valuable. So what's
01:27 the latest valuation on it?
01:29 So the latest valuation from Sotheby's is 2.5 million.
01:34 Okay, so now we know that this bust was made by Chap Edmé Bouchardon and it was made in
01:40 the early 18th century and he was a French sculptor who did a lot of work for the Palace
01:45 of Versailles and French royalty. So how come his bust or a piece of his work ended up in
01:52 this shed in Ballon d'Or?
01:54 Well it's of Sir John of Invergordon and he was the founder of Invergordon at some point
02:00 in the 1700s so he must have been really rich and well to do to be able to afford Edmé
02:06 Bouchardon. But the reason it was there was apparently when one of the old townhouse buildings
02:13 in Invergordon was emptied, everything was put there for storage. But as things happen,
02:19 councillors leave, different ones get elected, different officers leave and everybody kind
02:24 of forgot about it.
02:26 So this is a real sort of like kind of cash in the attic story and the kind of the sculpture,
02:33 the story surrounding the sculpture has kind of like emerged again because as I understand
02:36 it the council has been offered quite a lot of money for it but there is some resistance
02:41 to the council selling it too. So could you just tell us what the latest is please?
02:46 Yeah so after a few years of finding it, you know I obviously wanted to know its value,
02:51 it started off at they thought 125,000 which was still quite a lot but as it was creeping
02:57 up through the years and people were putting different values on it we thought maybe we
03:02 should sell it. Well I thought that and discussed it with a few colleagues who agreed it was
03:07 a possibility. So what happened was it was put on display in La Louvre in Paris because
03:15 of Edmé Bouchard d'Orby in French we thought they might be interested and they paid for
03:19 the insurance and they paid for the transport and they had it on display. So whilst it was
03:23 there there was some interest in it. So the buyer is actually confidential so we don't
03:31 know who that is although I've got a pretty good idea. So they've approached Sotheby's
03:36 and said they would be prepared to buy it for 2.5 million and provided it didn't go
03:42 into an auction that is their offer to buy it outright. So we have now gone to consultation
03:47 it was agreed yesterday but of course this story has been playing out on social media
03:52 as well so people are commenting. So we are getting a few people saying no no don't sell
03:57 it but then I think when they realise well it's going to be in storage and nobody will
04:01 see it what's the value of it doing that they're kind of hesitating. So I would say at the
04:07 moment we've got probably if I take a straw poll on social media it's 90% are saying sell
04:13 it and maybe 10% are saying don't. We have to go out to a proper consultation to get
04:19 all comments and all interested views in. And as far as you're concerned what is the
04:26 kind of value or the advantage of selling it and what will the money do? Well at the
04:31 moment of course it's in storage so nobody sees it nobody even knows it exists and although
04:36 it's been played out in the media over the last 25 years people forget. So a lot of people
04:41 didn't even know about it. So it's of no value to me it's of no value if nobody can see it
04:47 or get any enjoyment from it. But if we were to sell it the buyer would commission a replica
04:53 which in itself would be worth a couple of hundred thousand. I think it would probably
04:57 be a marble as well. So the first thing is we could display that locally. We have a museum
05:02 in Invergordon we could display that in Invergordon Museum and that would get people into town
05:07 to look at the Bouchard-en-Brasse which I would hope it would anyway. But the second
05:12 thing is if we invested that 2.5 million in lots of different sort of areas we could probably
05:19 realize about 100 to 125,000 per annum. So we could use that interest as a common good
05:25 fund for the town. So any sort of capital project we could invest in. For instance for
05:32 quite a long time there's been a piece of land right in the middle of the high street
05:36 that the council or the community would like to own. We could make it into a town square
05:41 and we could have pipe vans and you know market stalls whatever else. So that's just one little
05:46 example of what we could do with it. But you feel the money could actually make a great
05:51 difference on the ground in Invergordon the town that this chap who's portrayed in the
05:56 Bouchard-en-Brasse created. Do you feel that it would be a fitting thing to sell it? Absolutely.
06:01 You know I'm sure if we asked him back in the 1700s you know in about 250 years do you
06:07 mind if we sell your Bouchard-en-Brasse and use the proceeds to make Invergordon better?
06:12 Joy would have said yes that's fine. Yeah sure absolutely. And you are getting some
06:18 resistance from the community of art experts and art historians who believe that this is
06:25 an important artwork. It's one of Bouchard-en-Brasse's earlier pieces and it's the only one in Scotland
06:31 and really the rightful place for it is to go to National Museums Scotland for example
06:38 which would bring no financial benefit to Invergordon. What would your view be or how
06:43 would you respond to art historians who say well this is an important artwork it should
06:47 remain as such and it should go on public display for the wider greater good? Well I
06:52 think it's basically Invergordon's decision. So if Invergordon decide that they want to
06:58 put it in the Museum of Scotland then fine we'll do that but I don't see how that benefits
07:05 Invergordon in any way except occasionally people will go there and see it and say okay
07:10 that's for Invergordon but it doesn't have any direct benefit in Invergordon. I did expect
07:15 that people obviously with art as a main interest would want to keep it in Scotland why wouldn't
07:22 they? But they've got to think about its actual ownership and who owns it and it is the community
07:27 of Invergordon and councillors and previous provosts that own it. We've also got to remember
07:33 that we are getting a replica which would be on display in Invergordon so the story
07:38 doesn't die the story continues you know its actual origins and everything else is probably
07:44 played out more if we have that replica of the bus locally and so I think that would
07:50 be fairer. However if we do go to consultation and people in the majority say we want to
07:56 sell it we do then have to go back to the UK and say because it's an international buyer
08:03 we have to say to the UK is there anybody in the UK or preferably Scotland that wants
08:09 to purchase it for the same price or more and if they do then that is you know up to
08:15 them so if the National Museum want to buy it for 2.5 million they could. But you would
08:21 argue quite strongly that 2.5 million would make a great difference to Invergordon itself?
08:28 Absolutely and as I say it's not just the 2.5 million it's a replica that would be on
08:33 display locally and that would draw people into the town of Invergordon to come and see
08:39 it so it's got a double hit if you like. Absolutely and so this bus which you found 25 years ago
08:47 it's actually become quite a big part of your own life I guess and you're kind of a public
08:53 representative. Yeah it kind of comes and goes every few years you know probably every
08:59 what we say every maybe three to five years it hits the media because we've got a new
09:04 valuation or whatever but this is the biggest hit of all because it's obviously we do have
09:10 an actual buyer now. And did that offer I think I believe it's 2.5 million from an
09:16 overseas someone from overseas who's interested in acquiring this is that why the stories
09:23 emerged again because this new offer has come in? Well no we actually were talking about
09:29 a consultation so we already had that on the card so we discussed this two years ago in
09:34 the old council and wanted to go to consultation but so during that period of wanting to go
09:40 to consultation to see what to do with it the buyer emerged so we were already looking
09:46 to do it but obviously if we have a buyer it's much more interesting because we don't
09:52 have to go in search of one. Had we gone out to consultation and people said well maybe
09:57 we'll sell it at that point it was worth we thought about 1.75 million so you know it's
10:03 increased so yeah there is the argument we could keep it for perpetuity and it would
10:08 be worth a lot more but what benefit is that? To me you keep something for a rainy day Invergordon's
10:14 rainy day is now and we need that money to make things better in the town. Absolutely
10:19 okay well listen Maxine thank you very much for coming on this morning talking through
10:23 that story I was just interested have you seen the bus recently as I understand it's
10:27 kind of wrapped up somewhere within is it Inverness museum it's at the moment? Yeah
10:32 it's in somewhere in storage it's kind of secret but yeah it's in a safe place the last
10:38 time I saw it unfortunately was when I had my photograph taken with it when it was being
10:43 used as a doorstop and that was years ago. I'd love to see that photo and just one more
10:52 thing if I can like when will the consultation run till and when will we know what happens
10:58 next? Well it has to run for at least eight weeks and it hasn't started yet so that kind
11:02 of takes us after Christmas so we're not going to rush it so I would imagine we won't be
11:07 hearing back from maybe till the end of January February and there's lots of consultation.
11:14 And do you get a feeling in Invergordon that this is something that folk are chatting about
11:18 and they are interested about and how will you reach people to make sure you've got as
11:22 good a kind of representation as possible? Well it's already playing out on social media
11:27 as you can imagine so it'll be social media but it will be people can write in it will
11:33 be there'll be a website a council link that people can go and give comments on and also
11:39 we are discussing whether or not we have a public meeting so we may do that. So you know
11:44 we'll tackle it from all angles so that we don't miss anyone out. That's great okay I'll
11:48 look forward to hearing what happens next okay the story is certainly not over yet Maxine
11:52 okay? No not yet thank you Alison. Thanks a million bye for now. Thank you bye.
11:57 Bye.
11:57 you
11:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]