It is great that the UK has publicly run museums and galleries that have free entry to all. As they are publicly funded, and spending taxpayer cash to keep going, they are all subject to the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act – which means we can ask them questions about how they are managed and how their funds are spent.

There are few areas in the art world that spark more debate than whether Modern Art is in fact Art at all – just look at the row the Turner Prize kicks off every year. So, it has been great fun to delve into the spending of Government and our public galleries on what “artworks” they have spent our money on.

When FoI first came into force the cost of public art was something of a cause celebre and ended up with me representing myself in a case against the Information Commissioner at the Information Tribunal in a battle to know how much the National Maritime Museum had spent on a sculpture. Fortunately, the judges sided with me and said there was a public-interest in knowing the amount being spent on pieces of art the public was buying.

https://informationrights.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk/DBFiles/Decision/i89/John%20Connor.pdf

Over the years I have had articles published on how much has been spent on artworks made from sheep droppings, oranges, discarded chewing gum and Lego bricks.

The BBC, the nation’s publicly-funded broadcaster, is also subject to scrutiny under FoI laws and one of my favourite articles is probing to Corporation to see just how egalitarian it really is. Unsurprisingly to many the facts show that while the public sees a much more diverse looking broadcaster than it did 20 years ago the same old public-school elite are running the institution.