Labour’s candidate to run Glasgow council has insisted he will “absolutely not” sell a £60m painting to help meet the city’s equal pay debts.
Malcolm Cunning said the Salvador Dali masterpiece is safe in his hands after a powerful trade union leader suggested flogging it.
Although an equal pay deal worth around £500m was agreed by Glasgow council in 2019 for predominantly female workers, unions say discrimination remains in place and many claims are outstanding.
Smith, general secretary of the GMB, told the Record recently lucrative city assets could pay for any future settlement.
He specifically mentioned Dali’s ‘Christ of Saint John of the Cross’, which is the £60m star attraction at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery.
Cunning, who is trying to topple the SNP ’s Susan Aitken in Thursday’s elections, was asked if he agreed with Smith.
“Absolutely not. We can’t do it,” he replied.
On whether the painting is safe in his hands, he said: “The Dali and every other item.”
“I think the insurance value of the entire civic collection is somewhere north of a billion pounds. Theoretically, you could go and empty the store in Nitshill, you could empty the Kelvingrove and realise a billion pounds, probably actually more.”
He said: “You cannot do it. You’d get thrown out of the club.”
Asked which club, he referred to the “international museums club” and claimed:
“You wouldn’t get international loans. You wouldn’t any longer get bequests and the city would lose something.
“It is the sort of thing that actually belongs to the people in Glasgow. It doesn’t belong to the council. That’s the fundamental thing.”
“I’m not entirely convinced that Gary is 100% serious that we should send it down to Sotheby’s.”
But he also said of the painting: “It doesn’t do much for me.”
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