LONDON, UK.- The resignation of artist Graham Sutherland from the Tate board of Trustees was due to the artist’s accusation that the gallery's director, Sir John Rothenstein was misusing funds bequeathed to the Tate to purchase Picasso and Degas works, according to a memo. Graham Sutherland wanted the money invested in British art.

In a private memo to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rab Butler, in 1954, Graham Sutherland complained about an "over-hasty deal" under which the Tate paid £18,480 for its collection of Degas bronzes. He claimed that their market value was at most £14,200. Degas version of The Little Dancer which fetched £5m. Sutherland complained that the Tate had paid £5,250 for Picasso's Femme Assise dans un Fauteuil. He wrote: "It seemed evident to me that the trustees had been placed in a totally false position owing to the lack of information and advice from the director which they unquestionably had the right to expect whenever contemplating the application of such funds." A work by Picasso from the same period recently sold for $5 million at Sotheby's.