The vanishing boat

Apollo, Oct, 2005 by Eric Shanes

I really must protest in the strongest possible terms about the way in which the director of Artwatch UK, Michael Daley, has wilfully misrepresented me in your columns. In 'Turner's Vanishing Boat' ('Letters', APOLLO, August 2005), I stated that the Clark Art Institute has 'sadly acted entirely in keeping with museum norms' regarding the secret decisions it has made over picture cleaning. In his letter of response entitled 'Museums are now honest about conservation issues' ('Letters', APOLLO, September 2005), Mr Daley drops the words 'sadly acted' from my sentence in order to make me say it is 'somehow understandable or acceptable' that museums should behave in this way, a complete reversal of my position.

Mr Daley's attempt to correct me over the number of stage proofs there were to Robert Carrick's chromolithograph of Turner's Rockets and Blue Lights is redundant, given that I had already stated there are fourteen of these in the very first footnote to my original article ('A Turner Resurrected', APOLLO, May 2005).

I am extremely happy to learn from Mr Daley that the National Gallery is now being more transparent about its previous cleaning policy. Perhaps he could therefore enlighten us in your columns about exactly what has happened to the Vermeer about whose treatment I complained, and about whose state I know Mr Daley has been valiantly attempting to establish the truth for some years now.

Eric Shanes, London