Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20174582

Sigh!How can I take the government's cuts seriously?Really?Getting a stuffed snake re-stuffed is more important than saving money? :shrug:

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

I don't know, if it's been there since the 19th century that it might be a act of barbarism to let it go.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Sorry Damien I think that's rather a poor reason..

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

I don't. £10,000 is the grand scheme of things is nothing. Letting historical items or buildings go to waste to save money needs to be a decision that isn't taken lightly. The Government probably has a multitude of these types of items and buildings, items and locations that have seen generations of British royalty and politicians pass them by. I think it can be a sobering and inspiring thought when you're in a place that has seen so much history. Imagine staff working on desks on which their predecessors conducted affairs of Empire or plotted during World War 2. Some countries do not have that.

That isn't to say it's always justified but it's not a obvious choice. Is £10,000 really too much to pay to restore such an item?

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

^This.

As an antique it has value, which belongs to the nation. The Government has a responsibility to protect the value of such assets. Allowing valuable national assets to rust and rot would be short term cultural vandalism.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

£10,000 isn't really a huge amount when you look at how much the impending renovations of Westminster are going to cost.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Maybe not but it would be a reasonable way to save money.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Not if failing to spend £10k on preserving an antique asset results in that asset's value plummeting or vanishing entirely.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

If it was something useful I might have agreed with your suggestion.However one can't sit on a stuffed snake or write on a stuffed snake or put books on a stuffed snake.As an antique it wouldn't have been missed at all and for £10,000 I'm sure they could have bought a reasonably cheaper antique.;)

I'm just getting rather sick of being told that we should all be spending money more wisely in our own lives and that the nation must try and make cutbacks as a nation and then they do something like this.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

And I think you've been gripped by an attack of the sort of short-termism for which politicians are often criticised. That, and a failure to grasp the magnitude of the national budget and the fact that £10k is less than a rounding error that could not even be easily transferred to another department. I can see how this makes shocking headlines but seriously, this is simply what it costs to maintain our historic buildings and their contents.

Think of it this way. If things get *really* bad, at least Albert is now in a state where he can be sold, hopefully for something well in excess of £10k.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Strange reasoning for someone whom I think teaches Art?

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

I must be slipping as I find myself in agreement... :D

---------- Post added at 20:10 ---------- Previous post was at 20:09 ----------

It's probably a good deal prettier than the Mona Lisa. :D

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

What the hell does a stuffed snake have to do with art?:confused:

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Ask Damien Hirst. :D

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

£10,£10,000,£100,0000 or ten million..it's still waste surely?

I'm not even playing party politics here folks.I truly think it's a waste of public money and my inner soul cringes.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

No, £10, £10,000 or £10,000,000, it's only a waste if value is destroyed rather than created or maintained.

I don't suppose anyone has come across an estimate of what Albert is worth have they?

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Surely, I don't have to explain that the fact that some things don't have an immediate practical purpose (such as Art) doesn't necessarily mean they're not worth pursuing?

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

I would have gladly donated 10 grand if it was Hague getting stuffed

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

I heard that when he was in power John Prescott spent £££'s getting himself stuffed. :D

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Sorry I should have remembered Hirst's shark..But even then I did ask what a shark in formaldehyde had to do with art.:p:

So what does a stuffed snake have to do with art?

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Parliament and the Ciivil Service is full of stuffed artefacts and we should support them. :D

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Whatever their political persuasion? ;)

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

O' course. They're all true gentlemen and fine ole folke doing their best to drag us mere mortals out o' the gutter.... ;)

Frankly I wish they'd all forget the colour of their badges and work together to get us out of the mess New Labour got us into. ;)

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

I'm not sure if you're deliberately or genuinely obtuse.

Many people will question the purpose of art, and whether we should spend public money on it. Many people will question the purpose of re-stuffing a Victorian era Anaconda. Neither serves a practical purpose. Some things are worth keeping just for quirkiness. They might be considered art in future. If an art teacher thinks quirky things aren't worth investing in, then I have little hope for the future of art.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Somethings are worth the money for their culture or their history. The world and life would be a very sad and boring place otherwise. Everything doesn't have to have an immediate financial payoff to be worth of our money and time. The Olympics were a great example of this.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

It sounds like they may have been legally obliged to restore it. Did they know what the full cost was going to be, before going ahead? They might have assumed that the cost would have been low as it's not exactly a complicated shape or pose.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Or they could've sent it somewhere other than the natural history museum who'd have done it cheaper, I find it amusing to that billy hague and his cronies share a building with a snake, bet it fits right in...

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/sh...l-pythons.html

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/29074...var=sbar&cbt=y

Alive one costs £200

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/sh...ll-python.html

A live pregnant anaconda will cost over $2299.

http://www.backwaterreptiles.com/sna...-for-sale.html

But a dead antique stuffed snake in Google just leads me back to this news tale which appears to have spread across the world overnight.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Okay, I've settled on genuine.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

That's correct ,as a gift to the nation they have a legal obligation to maintain it ,but as with most government jobs it costs 4 times as much as any other because no-one bothers to get quotes or question the price .A snake i assume would be priced per inch which according to this is around $3 per inch

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

No I just don't accept your premise so there is nothing left to discuss.

Stuffed animal = Natural History.
Painting of animal =Art.

Now do you see what MY premise is.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

From the OP link:

The money wasn't really "wasted" as it stayed in the UK.

Re: Foreign Office's antique anaconda cost £10,000 to re-stuff
 

Oh bugger! That's the end of the argument then... :D