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‘Business only thrives when society thrives’

Judi Bevan

Wednesday, 8th October 2008

Judi Bevan hears the views of Paul Myners, the left-leaning millionaire art collector who has just become Gordon Brown’s City minister

There is a telling mischief about the way the new City minister dresses. A double-breasted dove-grey pinstripe suit is worn with a white shirt worthy of a detergent ad, no tie but tasteful cuff links, black brogues and socks. There is an arresting slash of colour from a chunky orange plastic watch strap for his black Calvin Klein timepiece. All very Mondrian — but then until his appointment last week, Paul Myners, soon to be Lord Myners, was the chairman of the Tate trustees. He is such a keen collector of contemporary art that his Belgravia house does not just have paintings on the walls, it has installations.

In order to give them due respect the house is scarily tidy. ‘When we moved here five years ago we decided to do something contemporary and modern.’ It feels like an art gallery with furniture, all clutter banished. ‘Oh the clutter is here,’ says his wife Alison — who chairs the Contemporary Arts Society, among other things. To prove it she opens a deep drawer in the pristine white lacquer kitchen to reveal a pile of notepads. ‘It’s just hidden.’

Despite a long career in the City, initially as a blue button at the stock jobber Wedd Durlacher, then at NM Rothschild where he became its youngest ever director, and finally at the fund management group Gartmore where he made a tidy fortune, Myners’s interests have always been wide, covering not just art, but opera and good works as well. Known for his iconoclastic views, considerable ego and ferocious temper, he is the author of five government reports, and maintains a panoply of important connections ranging from Damien Hirst to Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, where he served on the Court until last week. ‘I have worked in the City but I have never been of the City,’ says Myners in his rich, fruity voice with its clear but classless delivery.

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