Death of Covent Garden chairman, 64

Death of Covent Garden chairman, 64

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norman lebrecht

June 09, 2020

The colourful Ian Taylor, a vigorous oil trader and ebullient chairman of the Royal Opera House, has died after a long bout of cancer.

He stepped down at Christmas from his ROH post due to ill health.

Comments

  • william osborne says:
    June 9, 2020 at 6:12 pm

    The curious world of arts patronage:

    “As CEO, Taylor suffered the most damaging hit to his reputation in 2007 after allegations Vitol paid about $13 million in “surcharges to the regime of Saddam Hussein to secure oil shipments. An investigation led by Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, exposed a world of illicit payments, secret bank accounts, and diplomats for hire. Vitol pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

    “’We did a settlement to protect our own staff,’ Taylor said, suggesting that without the deal, U.S. prosecutors could have charged individual traders.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-09/oil-trader-vitol-says-former-ceo-ian-taylor-has-died

    And there was Vitol’s dealings in the Libyan civil war.

    Of course, the Iraq and Libyan embargoes, the Second Iraq War, and the Libyan civil war were all trumped up shams for the Anglo-american corporate worlds. With the US and UK governments, Hussein, Gadaffi, and commodities traders, it was a den of thieves all around. Just the thing for a quasi-feudalistic system of arts patronage, no?

    Reply
    • william osborne says:
      June 9, 2020 at 7:13 pm

      And may he rest in peace, freed from this dark world.

      Reply
    • Ken says:
      June 9, 2020 at 7:20 pm

      “Of course, the Iraq and Libyan embargoes, the Second Iraq War, and the Libyan civil war were all trumped up shams for the Anglo-american corporate worlds.” Of course? “Do we have to do this again? “

      Reply
    • annnon says:
      June 10, 2020 at 9:14 am

      It’s a vicious cycle of the same dirty, laundered money that flows from terrorists to corporations to government to the arts, it’s what makes the world go around, it’s what makes opera productions possible, it’s what puts food on the table, it’s what feeds the musicians, it’s what feeds the soul.

      Can’t have one without the other, but make no mistake about it, it drips with someone else’s blood.

      Reply
      • Tamino says:
        June 10, 2020 at 9:48 am

        Can’t have one without the other? You think the war business is essential?
        I vehemently disagree.
        I would appreciate though, if in opera houses they would print in the program:

        “This performance was made possible by blood money from war profits by XY Corp. That women in Iraq were bombed back into the stone age and children die like flies is a small price to pay for us here enjoying this tremendous performance and some Dom Perignon in the intermission. Enjoy!”

        Reply
  • Beata says:
    June 9, 2020 at 6:17 pm

    Sorry to read this. R.I.P.

    Reply

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