I drove over to North Rigton this morning to rotate my display in the restaurant at the Square and Compass, where my work has been on show for several years now. Since I last visited the place they have moved around the pictures as a result of their finding a cache of old photographs and documents relating to the place, which they wanted to display. (This includes one of their original menus.) None of my pieces was in its original location. When the manager showed me round, to identify the new spaces I could use, we were both rather disconcerted to discover that one of my pieces seemed to be missing.
Our responses to the situation were curiously different. He was anxious and a little embarrassed at the thought that one of my pictures might have been lost. I was hopeful that it might have been stolen! He was puzzled by this reaction, until I explained that it could be looked at as something of an accolade in the art world if one’s work is deemed to be worth stealing. Let’s face it, having your work pinched is almost as good as somebody taking the trouble to forge it. It was with mixed feelings that I tracked it down.
All ended well, as it turns out that under the new dispensation there is room for five of my pieces instead of the previous four, and in two of the locations the illumination is rather better than in their previous sites.