The National Trust has replaced antique furniture with beanbags at one of its historic homes in an ‘experiment’ which has enraged heritage experts. Furniture dating back to 1820 was moved from the library at Ickworth House in Suffolk earlier this year and replaced with four brown leatherette bean bags. The move was designed to encourage visitors to ‘dwell and take in the atmosphere’ in the room but it provoked fury from heritage expects who branded the move ‘misguided’. The National Trust has replaced antique furniture with beanbags in the library of Ickworth House, Suffolk . Now it has emerged that similar experiments will take place at nine other of its venues around the country. Art historian Bendor Grosvenor, whose blog post on his Art History News site about Ickworth sparked the controversy, told The Independent: ‘I suspect the hoo-ha about the beanbags may at least cause them rethink what they were going to do. The National Trust said the beanbag experiment was 'short-term' Pictured: Ickworth House, Suffolk . ‘I don’t think you’ll ever bring in a new audience by talking down to it. Experimentation and bringing in new audiences are marvellous but there are better ways of doing it by taking away things people might want to see. It’s patronising nonsense.’ The National Trust’s director of strategy, curatorship and external affairs Simon Murray told The Art Newspaper that the Trust ‘presents each house in context’ and that each is different and treated appropriately. He said: ‘We are not a museum that takes objects, shows them in a display case, shines a light on them and labels them’. But he said this meant that ‘many visitors find a vast array of objects in front of them, cast a cursory eye over them and don’t get a great deal from the experience.’ He said the beanbag experiment was a short-term arrangement which would not necessarily continue for the whole year. But he added: ‘Some of our staff think we should have used a rather different sort of seating and others think it is good as an experiment.’
Four brown leatherette bean bags placed in library at Ickworth House . Furniture dating nearly 200 years removed to make way for bean bags . Designed to encourage visitors to 'dwell and take in atmosphere' Art historian brands the experiment 'patronising nonsense'