Parliament Website

ROLE OF CHRISTIE'S IN THE SALE OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE PAPERS

EDM number 1222 in 2003-04, proposed by Alex Salmond on 18/05/2004.

That this House reiterates its belief that the important collection of papers of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to be sold by Christie's at private auction, should be kept intact and in the public domain for scholars and academic research; believes it is highly unsatisfactory that, despite some last minute moves under pressure of a parliamentary motion, Christie's had not insisted on all of the information concerning legal title of the documents being made available to interested parties before agreeing to the auction; in particular regrets the refusal of the sellers to accede to a request by the British Library for private sight of documents regarding the division of the collection in 1997, which creates the concern that the small portion passed to the late Dame Jean Bromet at that time and now lodged under the terms of her will with the British Library was not allocated in a fair and reasonable manner; and is deeply disappointed at the failure of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to make an intervention to get the auction delayed or indeed show any interest in this important matter.

This motion has been signed by a total of 22 MPs.

MPDateConstituencyPartyType
Alex Salmond18/05/2004Banff & BuchanScottish National PartyProposed
Pete Wishart18/05/2004North TaysideScottish National PartySigned
Iris Robinson19/05/2004StrangfordDUPSigned
Elfyn Llwyd19/05/2004Meirionnydd Nant ConwyPlaid CymruSigned
Ronnie Campbell19/05/2004Blyth ValleyLabourSigned
Ann Cryer19/05/2004KeighleyLabourSigned
Andrew George19/05/2004St IvesLiberal DemocratSigned
Mike Hancock19/05/2004Portsmouth SouthLiberal DemocratSigned
Rudi Vis19/05/2004Finchley & Golders GreenLabourSigned
Derek Wyatt19/05/2004Sittingbourne & SheppeyLabourSigned
Alan Meale20/05/2004MansfieldLabourSigned
Michael Weir20/05/2004AngusScottish National PartySigned
Robert Wareing20/05/2004Liverpool, West DerbyLabourSigned
Paul Tyler20/05/2004North CornwallLiberal DemocratSigned
David Hamilton20/05/2004MidlothianLabourSigned
Bill Etherington20/05/2004Sunderland NorthLabourSigned
Brian Iddon20/05/2004Bolton South EastLabourSigned
Alan Simpson21/05/2004Nottingham SouthLabourSigned
Kelvin Hopkins21/05/2004Luton NorthLabourSigned
John Cryer21/05/2004HornchurchLabourSigned
Annabelle Ewing25/05/2004PerthScottish National PartySigned
Nigel Jones16/06/2004CheltenhamLiberal DemocratSigned

Download raw data as csv or xml.