Collector becomes curator to show off treasures

Tim Sayer first stepped inside The Hepworth Wakefield in the summer of 2015. Two years on he has donated his entire art collection to the gallery, helped it secure the Art Fund Museum of the Year prize and now he can add exhibition curator to that list of firsts.
Art collector Tim Sayer, who has curated a new exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield. Picture by James Hardisty.Art collector Tim Sayer, who has curated a new exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield. Picture by James Hardisty.
Art collector Tim Sayer, who has curated a new exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield. Picture by James Hardisty.

The Collector Curates opens today and includes 25 works selected by Mr Sayer from his own treasure trove, amassed over half a century, as well as The Hepworth’s permanent art collection and loans from other galleries.

Mr Sayer said: “When I was first asked to do this exhibition the first thing I did was panic. Last year 100 works from my own collection went on display in Wakefield, but this was something different altogether.”

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The exhibition features work by the likes of Anthony Caro, Prunella Clough and Antoni Tàpies, as well as Barbara Hepworth’s very first lithograph from 1958. It was after visiting the gallery two years ago that Mr Sayer and his wife and fellow collector Annemarie Norton asked director Simon Wallis if he would like to house their collection.

Artwork by Stephen Lewis which is part of The Collector Curates exhibition.Artwork by Stephen Lewis which is part of The Collector Curates exhibition.
Artwork by Stephen Lewis which is part of The Collector Curates exhibition.

Mr Sayer said: “He was taken aback. His immediate response was, “I don’t know, I have never been offered a collection before’. However, he came down to see us in London and that was that.”

It was one of the largest private bequests ever given to a regional museum in Britain and since then Mr Sayer, who was awarded an MBE this year for his services to art and philanthropy, helped spearhead The Hepworth’s successful bid to be named the Art Fund Museum of the Year.

The 72-year-old, who worked or BBC radio before retiring, said: “We are still collecting and as we always have done, we buy what we like, never as an investment and we rarely ask advice.”