Tracey Emin and the problem with museum trustees

The Royal Academy has nominated Tracey Emin to be a trustee of the British Museum. There is quite a fanfare about the appointment – she is the first female artist to join the Board. Emin’s ability to shock and to push at the boundaries of what might be considered art, often invoking her own sex life, has made her into one of the best-known artists in modern Britain. And she is well on the way to becoming a National Treasure, despite all the controversy her artworks have generated. I do not much like her work, but it is hard not to recognise its originality, and her charitable work over the years has been truly impressive. Lately she has shown great courage in her battle against bladder cancer. 

The question though is not what one thinks of Tracey Emin and her art so much as what one thinks of the make-up of the Board of Trustees of the British Museum.