Three leading British contemporary artists tried to help save the high-profile charity, Kids Company, only weeks before it closed amid a row over its funding and financial management. Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley and Tracey Emin donated works of art in July in a last-minute bid to raise money.
The London-based charity, which was founded in 1996 by Camila Batmanghelidjh to help disadvantaged children and young adults and whose supporters included the UK prime minister David Cameron, went into receivership on 5 August before the art was sold, according to an anonymous source close to Kids Company. “The artists still have the works,” the source says. The art is reported to have been part of pledges worth £8m the charity received shortly before it closed.
Damien Hirst has been one of Kids Company’s most generous supporters, donating a reported £2m over a seven-year period. A further £902,500 was raised when the artist auctioned a spot painting of Mickey Mouse at Christie’s in February 2014. Hirst was also involved in developing the art therapy programme at Kids Company.
The Royal Academy collaborated with Kids Company on several exhibitions, including Holding Up Childhood last year and in 2004 Tate Modern worked with the charity on the Shrinking Childhoods exhibition, which involved more than 1,000 teenagers.
Since 2007, the band Coldplay has donated £10m to Kids Company, including £1m raised by the sale of album artwork created by Mila Fürstová, who designed the sleeve for Ghost Stories, and Paris, who produced the artwork for Mylo Xyloto.
Batmanghelidjh denies the allegations of financial mismanagement and defended the charity’s “hand-to-mouth” existence in the press. The Charity Commission is investigating the allegations against the charity. Nicholas Brooks, a senior auditor at Kingston Smith LLP, audited the accounts ending 31 December 2013 and said he had nothing untoward to report. The next accounts are due by 30 September.
