How much art does your council own and is it locked away or on display?

Fewer than one in 20 artworks owned by English councils are on public display, the BBC has found.

More than 500,000 pieces of art are held in the collections of 225 councils, but the vast majority is being kept in storage.

Local authorities remain "the biggest single constituent of public funding for arts and culture", according to the chief executive of the charity Art UK.

Yet many face a strain on storage space and resources, with a real-term fall in spending for museums leading to challenges in displaying council-owned art.

Council art collections include works by notable artists like Tracey Emin, David Hockney, LS Lowry and Antony Gormley.

Some of those collections include tens of thousands of pieces, with the largest collection of 125,000 works belonging to Waltham Forest Council.

Only a fraction of councils were able to provide the value of the collection but even individual collections had insurance values worth millions of pounds.

As of April, just 26,856 of more than half a million works were being displayed by the 225 councils who shared data with the BBC. But what options do these local authorities have?

Only one responding authority with more than 100 pieces of art - Rugby Council in Warwickshire - had them all on display.

All of its 257 artworks were exhibited together for the first time in April.

Sally Godden, manager of Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, said art had the power to connect communities.

"If things have been squirrelled away, then it's not going to do that," she said.

"It's not just a picture on the wall. It's how it connects to somebody and makes people think."

Godden said: "We can have the best collection in the world, but if they're not accessed, if they're not seen, if they're not enjoyed, if they don't make people think, then what's the point of them? They are so much more than an asset.

"We are very lucky to have such a great collection and continue to collect as well. By continuing to do that, we're growing stories, we're growing the diversity of the town, we're growing the views of people."

The council has backed a funding bid for the redevelopment of Rugby Art Gallery and a museum which would include a permanent space to display the council-owned collection.

Many of the council art collections are still growing and only 10 councils actively disposed of any of the art they own during the past six financial years.

Derbyshire sold 356 artworks in 2021-22, while North Lincolnshire sold 22 at auction in 2023-24.

The other eight councils said the items moved out of their collections had been donated, transferred to other museums, or disposed of.

For Derbyshire, the sale came as part of the closure of its Schools Library Service which had loaned art to schools.

When the service was closed after 72 years, the council did not have the space or staff to keep the collection.

Kent did not respond to the question, but previously confirmed to the BBC it had sold 418 artworks in the 12 months to April.

At the time, councillor Paul Webb said: "The reason for selling is a practical one, with the closure of the basement store where the art works are kept.

"I am sure the works have brought a lot of joy over the years to many people, and will now continue to do so."

The council also recently sold a sculpture back to Gormley, the artist who created the Angel of the North.

The chief executive of Art UK, Andew Elis, said that if all councils were to sell off art, our lives would be stripped of "these extraordinary artworks that should be there to enrich and engage us and brighten up our lives".

Art UK has spent years photographing public art collections to create a digital record of more than one million artworks.

Ellis said it was "really important" to give communities access to publicly owned art.

"We own in the UK arguably the greatest public collection of art in the world," he said. "Art changes lives, it enriches lives, it enriches our sense of place.

"The beauty of bringing all this together on one platform is that you make this art available for everyone, everywhere, all the time.

"From our point of view, this is not just about getting the art up online, this is about telling the stories behind the art and giving people agency over it."

He added councils should make more use of the shared resource, especially with increased strain on finances.

Councillor Mick Barton, who chairs the Local Government Association's culture committee, said communities should be able to enjoy local art and historic exhibits.

But he said councils continued to face significant financial pressures which were leaving them with less money to provide "discretionary services, such as museums".

Once adjusted for inflation, the net spend on museums across English councils has fallen by a fifth between 2017-18 and 2025-26.

Keeping the collections in storage does not always mean there is no access to the work.

Three of the responding authorities that owned more than 100 artworks said none were on display.

One of them, Rochdale Council in Greater Manchester, is not currently displaying any of its 1,701 artworks due to the regeneration of its Touchstones museum.

Its temporary closure saw the entire collection moved into the council's stores, which had to be reorganised to accommodate the works.

Senior curator Sarah Hodgkinson said they had been "taking a bit more risk than we have in the past" by bringing items from the collections directly to the public.

That has seen a "lively" programme, including taking pieces to schools, picnics in the park or events.

It has also let them catch up on the "behind-the-scenes" tasks of looking after a collection, like the storage and preservation.

Hodgkinson said: "We've taken loads of collections out into the community as part of our collections on tour programme.

"We've been working on repacking all of our sculpture collection, making sure our documentation is being worked on."

Mark Doyle is director of arts, heritage and wellness at Your Trust, which delivers culture and leisure service on behalf of Rochdale Council.

"A lot of people don't understand what's involved in looking after a collection and making sure that it's there for future generations to be able to access and see," he said.

Doyle said they often came across the "misconception" that the museum should have all of the items on display at the same time.

"Obviously that's not possible," he said. "But also there's other stuff that people don't understand about not having things on display for too long because it begins to deteriorate or they begin to be affected by the environment."

Additional reporting by Lauren Woodhead and Jonathan Fagg.