Freedom of information response

1. How many items of artwork are currently owned by Thurrock Council?

This will take over 18 hours to find this information out because we have an estimated 20-30,000 objects in our collections we would have to count every individual item that is artwork. We have logged more than half our items on to a database but we haven’t logged information like whether something is an artwork or not so we would have to go through the database manually.

2. For the above (1) please provide a breakdown in category - ie, paintings, sculptures etc

N/A

3. What is the total cost of the collection owned by Thurrock Council?

This will take over 18 hours to find this information out because we have an estimated 20-30,000 objects in our collections we would have to count every individual item that is artwork. We have logged more than half our items on to a database but we haven’t logged information like whether something is an artwork or not so we would have to go through the database manually.

4. How many of these items (Q1) are currently on display to the public?

N/A

5. What are the top five most expensive pieces of artwork owned by Thurrock Council? Please provide a full title for what the item is, including artist name if possible.

We don’t know the value of all of our artworks so can’t give a top 5. To find out, we’d have to locate and get a valuation for all of our paintings which would take more than the threshold number of hours. Also, we don’t see our paintings in terms of monetary value, we see them in terms of cultural value.

6. Which of these (5) are currently on display to the public?

Belhus House and Park, c.1710 18th C, unknown artist. We haven’t had it valued though.

In issuing our response the council have applied S12 of the Freedom of Information Act. 

This means that the council does not have to comply with your request if the cost of doing so exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’, which for local authorities is 18 hours.  This applies to the time taken spent locating and collating the requested information.  

If you wish to narrow the scope of your request and resubmit this to the council then of course we may be able to provide this information