On Tuesday, the CEO of the Serpentine Galleries, Yana Peel, resigned following an investigation revealing that a regulated, institutional fund, managed by her husband’s private equity firm, had acquired a large stake in a cybersecurity firm whose technology is alleged to have been used to monitor human rights activists and spy on dissidents.
While visitors to the gallery in Hyde Park have been absorbed by the mesmerising graphic designs of the 20th-century spiritual healer Emma Kunz and the transcendental paintings of Lurchita Hurtado, Peel’s resignation has served as a reminder of the art world’s long history of association with questionable sources of money.
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