Biography
Bagshaw Museum and Art Gallery is a local museum in the town of Batley, West Yorkshire. Situated in Wilton Park, the elaborate Gothic Revival mansion was converted into a museum by Walter Bagshaw (c. 1880-1927) in 1911. Originally called the Wilton Park Museum, it was renamed after Bagshaw following his death.
In the 1950s, the Contempoary Art Society donated a Francis Bacon painting (Figure Study II) to the Bagshaw Museum, Batley which now has an estimated value of between £19.5 million and £60 million. When ownership of the museum passed from Batley Borough Council to the amalgamated Kirklees Council in 1974, the painting was transferred to Huddersfield Art Gallery, where it is on permanent display when not on loan to other institutions. In 2016, it was reported that Kirklees Council were looking into selling the painting, which it considered "too valuable to be exhibited locally". They later conceded that the conditions of the Contemporary Art Society's donation meant that the work could not be sold.
