text: Over the last century the British Royal Family have benefited from special privileges like secret wills to keep their private wealth away from public scrutiny. How can Prince Charles afford to live so lavishly - many ask - and how is the Queen able to bankroll other members of her family?
  With the discovery of unpublished royal wills, little-known royal auction records and recently-released Treasury papers, David McClure has pieced together a mosaic of the landed property, jewellery and artworks that together forms the bedrock of the royal family’s inherited fortune.
  But like all inheritance tales it’s also a highly human story full of greedy relatives, family splits and skeletons in the closet – and one made all the more timely by the current succession process whereby the Queen hands over some royal duties to the younger generation.
  The book's author, David McClure, has given The Royal Forums an article on the Queen's wealth based on the book's content. He has also offered to answer any questions TRF members may have about the article or the Queen's wealth.
  Of the many revelations to come out of last year’s phone hacking trial, perhaps the most startling concerned the affair of the stolen nuts at the palace. According to an email from the News of the World royal correspondent Clive Goodman to his editor Andy Coulson, the Queen was so “narked” about the way the police were pilfering all the nibbles left outside of her Buckingham Palace apartments that “she started marking the bowls to see when the levels dipped” and sent round a memo instructing palace officers to “keep their sticky fingers out.” Her Majesty is famed for her frugality and has been known to eat breakfast off of Tupperware plates but was she so strapped for cash she could not afford an extra packet of Bombay Mix? Or, is she in fact like many of her aristocratic cousins: asset rich but income poor?
  In fact, when last year the Sunday Times Rich List compiled a table of the wealthiest aristocrats, the Queen came a surprising 14th. Top of the pile was the Duke of Westminster (£8,500m) followed by the Earl Cadogan (£4,200m) and the Duke of Devonshire (£800m). The Queen’s wealth was put at a modest £330m. To be fair, there is an element of guesswork in all lists of the mega-rich since without access to their bank accounts or tax returns, valuers can do no more than speculate about the exact size of many hidden assets.
  When it comes to the Queen, her landed property is easiest to put a price tag on since Balmoral and Sandringham are hard to hide. The two private residences have been valued at more than £60m, but any prospective Donald Trump wanting to snap up another Scottish golf course or some prime Norfolk real estate might have to pay double that amount when the added value of the royal cachet is factored in.
  But some of Her Majesty’s most valuable possessions are kept under wraps – or rather protective sheets. Queen Elizabeth inherited from her father, King George VI, the Royal Philatelic Collection, the world’s most comprehensive collection of postage stamps of Britain and the Commonwealth. Many of the most prized pieces were assembled by that most obsessive philatelist, King George V, who thought nothing of seconding Foreign Office staff during World War One to work on his hobby; on one occasion dragooning the diplomat Harold Nicolson into hunting down a rare batch of British military stamps with the word “Levant” misprinted on the face (later, as a diarist, he got his own back by writing that “for 17 years George V did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps.”) With just one set of stamps, a Kirkcudbright Cover of ten penny blacks, recently valued at £4m, the Queen’s total collection must be worth well over £10m and some estimates put the figure as high as £100m.
  The Queen also owns a valuable art collection worth many millions (the Crown Jewels, the Royal Collection and the official residences are inalienable state treasures and, as such, do not figure in her private wealth) and she also inherited the Queen Mother’s collection of paintings and jewellery with an estimated value of £60m. It was at first suggested by the palace that the art work had been transferred to the Royal Collection, but it was recently confirmed by a senior curator that they are in fact the private property of Her Majesty.
  A more mysterious aspect of her wealth is her portfolio of shares (rumoured to be in blue chip British companies). Its secrecy is guaranteed under a mechanism granted only to the world’s heads of state known as the Bank of England Nominees whereby any share dealing is conducted through an anonymous nominee company. Last year the Sunday Times Rich List put their value at £105m, but the figure is highly speculative due to our near complete ignorance of her equity investments. The only hint as to the scale of her investment income came in 1996 with the Diana divorce, when the Queen was reported to have come to the aid of Prince Charles in financing the £17m settlement. If Her Majesty was able to release perhaps as much as £10m in cash, then this would suggest that her investment income must be worth many tens of millions of pounds.
  This is an event to coincide with the Marysia Lewandowska's and Laurel Ptak's project Undoing Property.
  Projects form the majority of our programme and can include major commissions, smaller collaborations, local projects through Communal Knowledge, publications, off-site projects and research. Working with individual practitioners, groups or organisations, many projects are long-term: developing over years with smaller events building into major exhibitions over time.
  Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri: Let it not be said they were naively, fearfully, simply, just making art 2013—2014
  DECEMBER 28---In a stunning rebuke to the North Carolina district attorney handling the Duke University rape case, the state bar today filed an ethics complaint against the prosecutor, claiming that he has made numerous press statements that were 'prejudicial to the administration of justice' and also 'engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.' The North Carolina State Bar's complaint, a copy of which you'll find below, is filled with dozens of comments D.A. Mike Nifong (pictured at right) made following the alleged March rape of a stripper who had performed at a party attended by members of Duke's lacrosse team. The complaint charges that Nifong's comments violated state ethics rules barring statements that 'have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.' Nifong, the complaint adds, should have known that his media statements 'had a substantial likelihood of prejudicing the criminal adjudicative proceeding.' Criticism of Nifong's handling of the Duke case has increased following his decision last week to drop rape charges against three defendants, while allowing kidnapping and sexual offense counts to stand. (17 pages)
  Submissions are being accepted for consideration for the Independent Artist Showcase during the 34th Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards weekend. Please review the attached rules and regulations document thoroughly as some of these items have changed from last year. After review, please submit all of the required submission information on the form below. The online submission deadline will close on Saturday, November 10th at midnight. Upon completion of your online form, you must sign release form, submit final video and non-refundable $200 entry fee to: Independent Artist Showcase c/o Central City Productions, Inc., 212 E. Ohio, Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60611, postmarked no later than November 10, 2018.
  You are a legal U.S. citizen or a permanent U.S. resident who is eligible to work full-time in the United States You are 18 years old as of March 1, 2019. Third You DO NOT have a current music recording contract with a major label; a current agreement relating to the use of your name, voice and/or likeness; an exclusive distribution contract; or any other contractual arrangement that would prohibit you from fully participating in the show and/or entering into any contracts required by Producer, including a recording contract and merchandising contract. You are willing to travel at your own expense, if necessary, to perform in the Stellar Independent Artist Showcase in Las Vegas, NV between March 26 - 30, 2019 The video was taken by me and I grant Producer permission to the non-exclusive, royalty-free, and irrevocable rights to use, reproduce, copy, publish, display, distribute, perform, translate, adapt, modify, and otherwise exploit the submissions and to incorporate the submissions in other works in any and all markets and media worldwide in perpetuity.