Art: Breach of the Peace

In most matters of art, London's progressive Tate Gallery and the conservative Royal Academy happily stick to their separate tracks. One subject on which both have been meeting head-on for some 50 years: how to spend the proceeds of the £105,000 bequest left by 19th Century Sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey (TIME, Jan. 10, 1949 et seq.). So long as the Royal Academy made all the selections, the progressives howled—and in recent years outspoken Tate Director John Rothenstein had been chuting most of the Chantrey purchases straight to the cellar.

Last fall, in a move toward a negotiated peace, the academicians agreed to...