Tate‘s chair of trustees is reportedly open to relinquishing naming rights to the Turbine Hall for a minimum of £50 million (roughly $68 million) to fund the London institution’s new endowment fund.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Roland Rudd, chair of the institution’s board of trustees, floated the potential sale as a mean to help the newly launched Tate Future Fund meet its goal of £150 million by 2030. Rudd also suggested that naming opportunities could extend to curatorships and director positions.
A spokesperson for the network of UK-museums told the Art Newspaper the quoted figure was “hypothetical,” and declined to confirm whether the Turbine Hall is actively being offered as a sponsorship opportunity: “We are just at the start of the fundraising campaign.”
Rudd, in his interview, added that the “whole thing about the Future Fund is to ensure we have one of the greatest collections of British modern and contemporary art, and some of the greatest curators, because we are in a global marketplace.”
The Turbine Hall, a cavernous exhibition space in the Tate Modern, hosts one of among the most prestigious showcases for a living artist. In March, the institution announced that Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara would transform the space fall, following a pledge from museum director Karin Hindsbo of a stronger focus on Indigenous art.