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Very Rich Hours in Chantilly

It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: the chance to see one of the greatest -- and most fragile -- works of European art before your very eyes. The illustrated manuscript known as the  Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry contains images that have shaped our view of the late Middle Ages, but it's normally kept under lock and key at the Château de Chantilly, north of Paris. It's only been exhibited twice in the past century. Now newly restored, the glowing pages of  Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry are on show to the public for just a few months. "Approche, approche," the Duke of Berry's usher tells the visitors to the great man's table for the feast that will mark the start of the New Year. It's also your invitation to examine closely the illustration for January, one of the 12 months from the calendar in this Book of Hours -- a collection of prayers and other religious texts -- that form the centrepiece of this exhibition in Chantilly.  It's su...
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Picasso: Twice as Pricey at the Tate as in Paris

It's getting more expensive to visit London's big art exhibitions, with prices in 2018 crossing the £20 mark. The Picasso 1932 show at Tate Modern starting in early March looks to be setting a new benchmark.

The headline price for tickets to Picasso, described by the Tate as "one of the most significant shows the gallery has ever staged", will be £22, or £25 including a Gift Aid donation. The exhibition is a joint effort with the Musée Picasso in Paris, where it's just finished its run. In Paris, though, full-price tickets cost just 12.50 euros, or £11, half the London level.
Exhibition prices at the Tate have been hovering just under the £20 mark recently. The Modigliani show on Bankside and the Impressionists on Millbank both cost a headline £19.70 (£17.70 without a Gift Aid donation), while the Bacon and Freud show starting at Tate Britain on February 28 is £19.50 (though it's £17 if you book in advance).

Both the recent Cezanne show at the National Portrait Gallery and the outstanding Charles I exhibition at the Royal Academy have cost £18 without a Gift Aid donation, £20 with.

The National Gallery is adopting a similar trend. You'll pay £20 during the week and £22 at weekends to see Monet & Architecture starting there in April, though tickets are £2 cheaper if booked online.
Consumer prices in Britain have risen about 7% in the past five years. By comparison, tickets for Tate Modern's big spring show appear to have more than doubled. The Roy Lichtenstein retrospective in 2013 cost £14.

We asked the Tate to comment on the pricing for Picasso, but so far it hasn't responded.

How do the big shows on the Continent compare? The Louvre is doing Delacroix starting next month and is charging 15 euros, while you can get into the Rubens exhibition at the Städel in Frankfurt for 14 euros during the week.

Is more than £20 for an art show expensive? Not necessarily. Compared with a couple of hours spent at a top sporting event or the theatre, it's good value. And West End cinema tickets are not far off £20 these days either. The big question is whether these £20 blockbusters will live up to their billing....

Images

Pablo Picasso, Nude in a Black Armchair (Nu au fauteuil noir), 1932, Private collection, USA. (c) Succession Picasso/DACS London, 2017
Claude Monet, The Water-Lily Pond (Le Bassin aux nymphéas), 1899. (c) The National Gallery, London

Pablo Picasso
Nude in a Black Armchair (Nu au fauteuil noir)
1932
Oil paint on canvas
1613 x 1295 mm
Private Collection, USA
© Succession Picasso/DACS London, 2017
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