While we are here, and we have people who are so interested in culture, I would like to give notice of a motion.
I have brought 12 copies of the text. I would ask the clerk and the staff to come get them.
You will see that it is very relevant. It concerns the sale of a Chagall painting by the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa. I think this is something that highlights our committee's importance. We would not want politics to interfere in the policies of national museums, but a committee like ours can do it, and so I would like to put forward a motion.
The QMI Agency and The Globe and Mail having noted the appropriateness of the minister's intervention in accordance with some aspects of the legislation, the motion requests that we hear from the museum's management and the individual in charge of policies.
The motion reads as follows:
That the Committee invite the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada, Françoise Lyon, the Director of the National Gallery, Marc Mayer, the Chairperson of the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, Sharilyn J. Ingram, and the Department of Canadian Heritage, within 45 days, to explain decisions concerning Marc Chagall's La tour Eiffel and Jacques-Louis David's Saint Jerome Hears the Trumpet of the Last Judgment and to account to the Committee for these decisions' cost to the public.
I had never heard of those paintings, and now everyone knows about them. This story is interesting to people. I think our committee can shed some light on this situation.
When we move this kind of a motion, the meeting has to be interrupted, unless we announce it well in advance. I think that you are the best positioned and the best audience to understand how relevant this is.
I apologize. We can postpone the vote if you like, but I wanted to put forward the motion.
My time is certainly up.