Lord Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lucas on 2016-01-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the announcement of the sale of Corbis, Corbis Motion and Veer, what assessment they have made of how the interests of the UK and of the National Gallery, whose picture bank was put into data files and a database by Corbis, have been protected.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The National Gallery operates at Arm’s length from DCMS, and as such has responsibility for its own mage licensing arrangements. The arrangements between the National Gallery and Corbis in relation to the licensing of National Gallery images came to an end on 31 August 2008. When the arrangements terminated all National Gallery images were returned to the Gallery. As a result, the sale of Corbis, Corbis Motion and Veer, has no implications for the National Gallery. Ownership of the National Gallery database of images rests with, and has always rested with, the Gallery itself.