Church Farmhouse Museum Clearance - just get shot of it

Barnet Council are obviously in a hurry to clear the Church Farmhouse Museum. They must have found a buyer. In today's Delegated Powers Report it sets out the clearance and auction company they are going to use:

Auction Plus carries out both clearance and auction and will remove everything, including excess furniture. All items will be entered to the sale. Unsold Lots are automatically re-entered into a following sale. Items then not sold can be returned at request or disposed of free of charge in an appropriate manner. Their estimate of the auction value of the contents was up to £25,000 with a 20% commission. The company guarantees complete clearance of the entire contents, repeat entry into resale of items that do not achieve sale at first offering and subsequent ethical disposal without any further risk or cost, thus having the additional benefit of saving on the additional costs that would be required to clear and dispose of excess furniture,
fittings and rubbish.

They did not chose Company A even though they were proposing only 12.5% commission because their "reputation is built upon selling fine art and antique items with the attendant risk that the wrong buying audience may be reached. The Council would be liable for the cost of disposal or return of objects that remain unsold with consequent likelihood that receipts from the sale could be heavily eroded with unpredictable final costs for storage and secondary disposal".

I am surprised they just didn't hire a skip. So much for culture and heritage in Barnet.

Church Famhouse Museum up for Sale

With indecent haste Barnet Council are seeking approval to flog off the Church Farmhouse Museum. In the papers for Thursday's Cabinet Resources Commitee the members are being asked to declare the Museum surplus to requirements and:

"That the disposal of the freehold interest be advertised on the open market to seek details of proposed schemes and initial bids."

How utterly tragic that this Grade II listed building with parts that date back to the 17th century should just be flogged off like a secondhand car. To add insult to injury the council has chosen probably one of the worst times in the economic cycle to realise the maximum value from this site. This looks like a desperately shortsighted strategy to raise a bit of cash.