Wilfred Cass, founder of the Cass Foundation, talks about new developments at the nation's primary collection of sculpture.

Deep in the woods of the Goodwood Estate near Chichester it is not unknown to come across a towering steel wildebeest, a bare breasted woman with four multicoloured arms or a 50-foot tall orchid. At the Cass Sculpture Foundation almost anything the imagination dares to dream up is possible... and its for sale if you have a few thousand to spare.

The unique concept is the brainchild of Wilfred Cass maverick entrepreneur, philanthropist and long-standing patron of the arts. Son of a famous German brain surgeon, in his time Wilfred has counted among his friends such visionary sculptors as Henry Moore and Elizabeth Frink. He was awarded the CBE in the Queens 80th Birthday Honours List, June 2006, for services to art.

The charitable foundations aim and focus is to promote and advance British sculpture to a global audience. Through a vigorous programme of commissioning, funding and marketing, the Foundation has enabled the fabrication of 150 major new works by leading British artists. In 1996, the charity won the National Art Collections Fund prize for Promoting Enjoyment of the Visual Arts.

Wilfred's other passion is business. In 1987 he became Chairman and Chief Executive of Moss Bros Plc, reorganising the troubled group including relocating and selling its head office, starting up a new range of Suit Shops and buying Cecil Gee Plc. Wilfred remained at the company until 1991.

In 1979, Wilfred and his son, Mark, set up the pioneering Image Bank UK, which became one of the UK's largest supplier of film and photography for the advertising industry. The company was sold to Getty Images in 2001.

These twin loves of business and sculpture have underpinned Wilfred's life. Now at 82 he is in the position to unite the two, as well as create an enchanting testimony to the pioneering spirit of British sculpture.

How did the Cass Foundation come about?
It was mainly due to the grounds. When we moved here 17 years ago we had some sculptures and we decided to do something much more ambitious using these incredible, unique grounds. We travelled around the world for a year looking at sculpture parks from Japan to America. We registered the foundation as a charity 14 years ago.

What was the concept behind the charity?
British sculpture just wasn't being seen enough in Britain and the world market is much more educated about sculpture than Britain. One of the problems is that the artists have to fund themselves with specific commissions so the public seldom sees the results of their labours. Our job is to increase our own visibility and the visibility of the artists' work. If you come here you get an overview of everything that is happening in contemporary British sculpture.

So does Cass run as a business or a charity?
Because we receive no public money, it has to run to some degree as a business otherwise we would go bankrupt. Basically we pay for a piece to be made and halve the profit with the artist, so half of it goes back into commissioning another piece.

It is a very unique business model in that this place may have a turnover of a million pounds but there are only a few people running it and with very low overheads, as we have over 50 volunteers. But there is obviously a very high investment - £50,000 or £60,000 per piece - but the return could be many years down the line. It takes a long time to sell a big piece. But it is actually almost a perfect machine because you have got rid of all the obsolescence - every piece here eventually sells.

Who buys the pieces and for how much?
Around 46% of the pieces go to private and public buyers in America. Sculpture is on the up and up at present. We are beginning to sell more pieces to British buyers, around 30%, and China is a big market but they don't have copyright laws so it is a little bit hard to sell.

Prices vary but we have pieces worth £800,000. Some of (Tony) Cragg's are worth quarter of a million. I think some of your readers could do with a few pieces!

What are you looking for in your commissions?
We are always looking for something that it is extraordinary and new. In the end the artist has to come and convince us that the piece is worth making. Unknown artists account for 10-15% of commissions. It can take a long time to get from the initial idea to the final piece and we really don't have a timescale. Sometimes it takes four years. We commission 15 pieces a year and that is about the number we sell.

What new developments have there been at Cass?
We have recently completed work on a new building, which houses the archive, library and offices as well as a large space for select corporate events. The foundation was run for the first 12 years out of our house, which meant we didn't ever get away from it. But the main purpose of the new building was to house the entire collection of artists' preliminary sketches, designs and maquettes (scale models). Every single commission is recorded in the archive and it will continue to grow. It is one of the most important collections in Britain.

The chalk and earth we removed from the foundations have been used to create the section for the Tony Cragg collection. We hope to run similar collections of other significant British artists in the future.

Do you envision the Cass Foundation as being a site for corporate events?
Yes most definitely. We want to commission more work and we will need a lot of money to do so. That could come from corporate funding.

The new building offers an exclusive venue. We are looking for three or four corporate sponsors at this point. They get to use all the facilities here.


Article by Steve Cotterill, first published in the November 2006 edition of Business Edge.