Serota has been criticised by Platform and Liberate Tate for inviting increased sponsorship of the Tate from BP . Their demands were supported by 8,000 Tate members and visitors , and artists including Conrad Atkinson . When questioned about BP sponsorship during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill , Serota responded " We all recognise they have a difficulty at the moment but you do n't abandon your friends because they have what we consider to be a temporary difficulty . " Since its formation in 1999 , the Stuckist art group has campaigned against Serota , who is the subject of the group 's co-founder Charles Thomson 's satirical painting '' Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision '' ( 2000 ) , one of the best known Stuckist works and a likely " signature piece " for the movement . Serota was dubbed the " least likely visitor " to '' The Stuckists Punk Victorian '' show at the Walker Art Gallery in 2004 , which included a wall of work satirising him and the Tate , including Thomson 's painting . In fact , he did visit and met the artists , describing the work as " lively " . In 2005 , the Stuckists offered 160 paintings from the Walker show as a donation to the Tate . Serota wrote to the Stuckists , saying that the work was not of " sufficient quality in terms of accomplishment , innovation or originality of thought to warrant preservation in perpetuity in the national collection " , and was accused of " snubbing one of Britain ’s foremost collections "
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Nicholas Serota