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Regional publisher offers works of art to shareholders ahead of office move

SimonBax-e1397149503811A regional publisher is offering shareholders the chance to buy works of art from its collection owing to a lack of space in its headquarters.

Archant has made the offer ahead of a planned revamp at Prospect House, in Norwich.

The company announced the sale of the building in November to the Alan Boswell Group, a Norfolk-based insurance company, but staff will stay on the site and are set to be based on its first floor after a renovation is completed in June.

In a letter to shareholders, which has been seen by HTFP, Archant executive chairman Simon Bax said the company intended to retain as much of the art as possible following the move.

Mr Bax, pictured, wrote: “As you may be aware, over the years, we have acquired a wonderful and substantial collection of works of art.

“We intend to retain as many as possible for our new home, but as we will not have space for the entire collection we are in talks with various parties including a number of auction houses.

“We would like to give shareholders the opportunity to register their interest in any specific works of art. We will then take this into account when the decision is made on how we should proceed.”

Archant declined to comment further on the move when approached by HTFP.

10 comments

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  • February 25, 2020 at 12:24 pm
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    “…a wonderful and substantial collection of works of art”?
    I’m not sure who’s advising Mr Bax but I’d suggest it’s the same people who are telling him their paper sales aren’t in free fall and the ad reps love selling digital!
    No wonder they didn’t want to comment further,they’ve flogged off the head office,sold off or closed branch offices, shuttered and closed the print centre and offloaded some more staff recently so it’s hardly surprising they’re selling the fixtures and fittings now, trust me they’ll be having a car boot to raise funds next.

    Shocking and sad it’s finally come to this

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  • February 25, 2020 at 1:23 pm
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    Having seen some of the artwork over the years it’s a mixed bag, that’s for sure, and whether the curator’s personal tastes translate into hard cash remains to be seen. I presume that there were tax reasons behind the size of the collection, because having once been shown a full list of it there were quite a few items which never saw the light of day.
    However, the key issue here remains that one floor is insufficient space for every person and item currently inside Prospect House. What happens to all those bound volumes and the picture/negative library, for example? It’s going to be an awfully tight squeeze.

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  • February 25, 2020 at 4:38 pm
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    Wonder how much of the art has been ‘loaned’ or gone ‘ on tour’ over the years. Be interesting to watch Antiques Roadshow in a couple of decades time .

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  • February 25, 2020 at 4:59 pm
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    Serious question:
    Is there a catalogue or illustrated online brochure available for the shareholders showing the ( coughs) “works of art” soon to be available?
    Other than this It makes you wonder with everything that had a value already gone,no room to swing a cat and almost nothing else left to sell off,what next to raise cash?
    first dibs on the kettle from the kitchen and a wholesale pack of unopened lightbulbs maybe ?

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  • February 25, 2020 at 5:14 pm
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    @Annon
    There certainly used to be an internal, non-illustrated list of what was owned, but I doubt anything more formative has since been compiled, due to the curator of the collection being one of many over-50 people to have left the company. I think what is hoped for is that someone thinks: “I remember that picture of the cutlery in the canteen; I’d rather like it for old times’ sake.” There were a couple of hideous large images on the stairs; anyone who ever worked at Prospect House will remember at least one of them!
    If the Antiques Roadshow is coming anywhere close no doubt some reporter will be sent with a few pieces of art.
    And yes, Annon, anything of value has long since gone – such as the social clubs in Norwich and Ipswich!
    BTW, Prospect House insiders, what’s going to happen to the canteen? I imagine it doesn’t quite operate on the scale of the past, when it used to be open for the late shift.

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  • February 26, 2020 at 10:08 am
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    I believe the canteen will be for the use of all in the building “One Time Sub” however this won’t include the now mobile working ad reps though as they’ve been told by one of the chiefs (I use the term loosely) that if needs be they can work from McDonalds!

    Guess where morale is?

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  • February 28, 2020 at 3:46 pm
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    HTFP must both love and hate stories concerning Archant. On the one hand they get a lot of reads and responses; on the other sensitive moderators seem to remove more BTL comments about Prospect House articles than any other subject.

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  • February 28, 2020 at 4:26 pm
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    You’ve noticed too @OTS

    The commenters can see through the spin but in doing so appear to hit sensitive nerves.
    I also doubt it’s the site moderators, more likely the points being made are a little too close for comfort for some…..

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  • March 4, 2020 at 12:03 pm
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    Very clearly @OldJourno
    Sometimes the truth hurts, especially where anything other than agreeing with every short sighted and knee jerk measure is met with claims of negativity and ‘ not being on the bus’
    On a more positive note it’s good to see they’ve recently offloaded some of the under performing professional meeting attenders who’ve passed themselves off as ‘commercial managers’ for far too long, the vast cost savings associated with these unnecessary roles and the potential sale of the self proclaimed works of art could make a big difference to the bottom line, it needs to as I really can’t see where any further cut backs can be made, there’s nothing of any value left.

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