I SUSPECT that Charles Hutchinson had imbibed something rather stronger than coffee when he wrote that the proposed coffee bar and redecoration of the City Art Gallery are of greater significance than the acquisition of Allan Ramsay's portrait of Mrs Morison (October 14).

Apart from the glittering private view, the gallery has organised a series of autumn lectures which pay fitting tribute to Richard Green's unflagging energy and discernment in negotiating the acquisition of this magnificent portrait for the people of York.

Spiritually, the gallery is the permanent collection. Materially, it is merely the protective wrapping within which the collection is displayed. To value the wrapping more highly than the jewel must be judged the epitome of philistinism, were it not simply absurd.

What the gallery urgently needs is more space to display those paintings so very rarely seen, and a new temperature-control system to ensure the preservation of the treasures we have.

To spend £255,000 on coffee cups and cosmetics might arguably be thought perhaps not the best use of public funds.

The people of York are justly proud to own an art collection of national importance and international reputation. They do not, as far as I know, complain that a huge slice of their council tax is diverted into the coffers of the art gallery.

William Dixon Smith,

Welland Rise,

Acomb, York.

Updated: 11:58 Monday, October 27, 2003