Well-known art collectors Eric and Jean Cass have donated over 300 important modern and contemporary artworks from their personal collection to the Contemporary Art Society for allocation to public institutions and to support contemporary art in the UK. The collection, amassed over almost 40 years and previously housed in the interiors and gardens of ‘Bleep’, Eric and Jean Cass’s spectacular modernist Surrey home, is one of the most unique and significant collections of modern and contemporary art in the country and totals over £4 million.
In 2012, the Contemporary Art Society invited seven UK-based museums to research Eric and Jean Cass’s donation and to pitch to receive clusters of works that complement or enliven their current collections. The museums proposed works by artists including Karel Appel, Michael Craig-Martin, Barbara Hepworth, Joan Miro, Henry Moore, Victor Pasmore, Eduardo Paolozzi, Pablo Picasso and Niki de Saint-Phalle. Any works not appropriate for gifting to these primary museums will be sold to benefit the Contemporary Art Society’s Acquisitions scheme or will be gifted to other public collections in the UK.
Below Eric and Jean Cass talk about the Niki de Saint-Phalle works they donated to Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow through the Contemporary Art Society.