Artwork removed from National Portrait Gallery after Churchill row

A work by Turner prize-winning artist Helen Cammock was removed from the National Portrait Gallery after a week of criticism over a line about Winston Churchill’s role in the 1943 Bengal famine. The Persistence video installation was taken down on Monday as pressure mounted on the gallery.

Cammock narrates the 40-minute piece and compares Oliver Cromwell’s campaigns in Ireland with Churchill, saying “he starved people, en masse, a little like the wilful starvation of the Indian population by Winston Churchill”. That line prompted a letter to the gallery board signed by 50 peers and sent by the historian and peer Andrew Roberts, who called the installation’s description an “ideologically motivated rant”.

Sir Nicholas Soames, Churchill’s grandson, was among the signatories. The Telegraph also criticised the claim as “incorrect”. The artist and the gallery initially defended the work, but the NPG said the installation was removed at Cammock’s request.

helen cammock, the persistence, turner prize, portrait gallery, winston churchill, bengal famine, oliver cromwell, andrew roberts, nicholas soames, the telegraph