More than 65 artworks, including a photograph of Benjamin Disraeli and a 19th-century engraving of William Wilberforce, are listed as missing from the Houses of Parliament since the start of 2024, according to records released after a Freedom of Information request by the Press Association.
The list includes a portrait photograph of Queen Victoria’s favourite prime minister, a print of the leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade, a photograph of Baroness Margaret Beckett, and a satirical cartoon of Baroness Barbara Castle depicted as Florence Nightingale.
Artworks Lost During Estate Works
Parliament indicated that art may have been lost while being moved during works on the estate, and none of the items listed have been “written off”. Five artworks have been “found” since the turn of the year, including one by 19th-century satirical cartoonist Isaac Cruikshank.
Among the missing works by living creators is a cartoon by satirist Martin Rowson from the 1995 Conservative Party leadership election, depicting John Major seeking to lance the “boil” of the leadership contest, with Michael Heseltine and Michael Portillo looking on.
Cartoonist Comments on Missing Art
Mr Rowson told the Press Association that missing cartoons were not uncommon, recalling a Times cartoon of the Foreign Office Christmas Party in 2004 that “never got beyond reception”. He said: “It’s a shame but it’s hardly the crown jewels – and the point about cartoon originals is that they’ve been published already: the artefact is probably the impression in the newspaper, as that’s its ticket to posterity.”
He added: “(It’s) small beer compared to one of my cartoons which was part of a touring exhibition of work by members of the British Cartoonists’ Association, all of which was destroyed by a Nato airstrike in the Serbian public library it had reached on its British Council sponsored tour in 1998.”
Historical Context and Decline in Numbers
The photograph of Disraeli was taken by John Jabez Edwin Mayall, who also photographed Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Charles Dickens, and Karl Marx, earning more than £3 million in the decade after Prince Albert died. The print of Wilberforce, who died days after the abolition of slavery across the British empire, was by Victorian-era printmaker William Holl.
The number of missing artworks is down from 220 reported in 2018 after an audit, which included portraits of William Pitt the Younger and a wartime oil painting by William John MacLeod. A parliamentary spokesperson said: “There is little evidence of works of art going permanently missing from the Parliamentary Art Collection.” They added that artworks are frequently moved and subsequently found, and none are written off or considered a financial loss, with ongoing audits reducing the number recorded as missing.
