The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has been accused of nepotism after it hosted a photography exhibition by a large donor to its £40m makeover.
Zoë Law’s work is on display until 2 March in the Studio Gallery and Spotlight Space, with the organisation also acquiring her portrait of Noel Gallagher for its permanent collection.
In late November, the NPG launched Legends, a show by the makeup artist turned photographer, which featured images picked from more than 100 portraits she had taken over the last decade. Sienna Miller, Kim Cattrall and Orlando Bloom were among those who sat for her.
She was married to Andrew Law, the Caxton hedge fund manager, and their trust, the Law Family Charitable Foundation is listed as a key donor toward the NPG’s £41.3m refurbishment. Zoë resigned as a trustee in June last year amid their divorce.
When the Legends exhibition was announced, she said that it was “a lasting legacy that all portrait photographers and artists dream of”, but cultural figures expressed surprise at the prominent showing for “pedestrian” work – calling the exhibition “difficult to defend” and “obviously unethical”.
Jesse Darling, who won the Turner Prize in 2023, said: “It just makes plain what was always the case, no? Art is a rich man’s game made up of rich hobbyists who keep their money circulating among themselves.”
Museum as Muck, a network for working-class art practitioners, said: “Government funding for cultural institutions should remain independent from the influence of wealthy benefactors. Relying on additional funds from the affluent can skew the priorities of these institutions, granting undue influence on a select few.”
The NPG’s major transformation project, called Inspiring People”, was the most comprehensive redevelopment in the gallery’s 166-year history. It closed for three years and re-emerged with Tracey Emin-commissioned doors and an expensive rehang in June 2023.
The NPG was nominated for Museum of the Year in 2024 and other donors who supported the capital project included the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
A Turner Prize nominated artist, who commented anonymously, said: “That show had a lot of publicity around it for basically an unknown practitioner so it looked a bit odd … the work is pedestrian at best. A lot of photography is about access, which she had, but that was it. It’s a nepotism thing clearly and would be difficult to defend otherwise.
“It is interesting in that it brings up the fundamental question of what is the NPG for? Is it a gallery just for and about celebrity? It shouldn’t be.”
Zoë Law also headed the group that organised the Black and White ball, a fundraiser for the Conservative party, in 2015.
Members of the NPG’s board include two Conservative party figures: the former secretary of state for justice Chris Grayling and David Ross, the multimillionaire Tory party donor and friend of Boris Johnson. The NPG confirmed that the gallery’s ethics committee, which includes trustees, were consulted and approved the donation.
The Guardian understands that the decision to host an exhibition of Law’s work was not brought before the institution’s ethics committee.
Before the NPG exhibition, Law’s work had been displayed at Christie’s – which resulted in a book and a tour which went to the Lowry in Salford.
Law’s former husband, Andrew, is a money manager for Caxton’s who was described by the Financial Times as an “unassuming master of the universe”.
He set up the Law Family Charitable Foundation in 2011, an organisation that donated £8.1m in funding for the Lowry to purchase L S Lowry’s Going to the Match.
Nicholas Cullinan, who is now director of the British Museum, was in charge when the refurbishment project took place, and sat on the acquisitions group, who agree on which works should enter the NPG’s collection.
The NPG’s own rules on donations state that it “commits itself to ensure that its fundraising activities are conducted with integrity and public accountability”.
The institution’s website points out that the UK Bribery Act 2010 requires it to ensure that the receipt of a donation is “not related to some inappropriate advantage that be afforded to the donor, such as the award of a contract”.
A spokesperson for the National Portrait Gallery said it “followed our processes as outlined in our grants and donations policy, which are designed to ensure due diligence via an appropriately documented process. The gallery’s ethics committee were consulted and agreed the donation from The Law Family Charitable Foundation.”
The NPG added that the portrait of Gallagher was gifted by Law, and confirmed that the main consideration for works which enter the collection is “the national and historical importance of the sitter”.
Cullinan and Law declined to comment.
