Artwork blaming Churchill for mass starvation taken down from National Portrait Gallery

A video art installation has been taken down from the National Portrait Gallery after a row over its claim about the role of Sir Winston Churchill in the 1943 Bengal famine.

Turner Prize winner Helen Cammock's 40-minute video work titled Persistence made a reference to "the wilful starvation of the Indian population by Winston Churchill".

In the work, narrated by Cammock, she examined Oliver Cromwell's 17th century military campaigns in Ireland, and said he had "starved people, en masse", which was "a little like" Churchill in the Bengal famine.

The artwork prompted Churchill biographer Lord Andrew Roberts to pen an open letter - signed by more than 50 peers including Churchill's grandson Sir Nicholas Soames - refuting the claims.

Other signatories include Michael Grade and Zac Goldsmith.

Three million people in east India have been estimated to have died in the Bengal famine of 1943.

Churchill's policies as prime minister at the time have been criticised by some for exacerbating the situation.

Lord Roberts of Belgravia argued the installation's description of Churchill was a "bare-faced lie" and "ideologically motivated rant" that "denigrated" the war-time prime minister.

"The Bengal famine was an unimaginable tragedy and disaster, but the accusation that it was deliberately visited upon the Bengalis by Churchill is foul and vile," he said.

"It is also historically ludicrous, as every serious historian of the period attests."

Lord Roberts said the Bengal famine was caused by a typhoon and that Churchill told his war cabinet every effort must be made to help those affected and asked international leaders to send in grain.

Following the backlash, Cammock said she made the decision to "withdraw" the work from the gallery.

"There is an incredible pressure on artists and arts institutions to bend to external pressure; to be benign at best and silent at worst. I do not accept this pressure," she said.

"To question, challenge and explore ideas and histories is vital to a healthy society and art is intrinsic to this.

"For me, art is about dialogue, it is about a questioning of existence through the transformation and translation of thoughts and ideas.

"It asks us to think, to feel, to react - and we must take responsibility for our own reactions to it."

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She said her work "asks us to think about who is honoured and valorised and who is not; whose stories are told and whose are not".

She added: "Persistence will have its own life after this: it won't hide and it won't be afraid to speak with those who are prepared to sit with it and listen - not agree or submit to it - but to hear it out, consider its points and make their own minds up."

In a statement, the gallery said: "Helen Cammock has decided to remove her film, Persistence, from display at the National Portrait Gallery.

"We respect her decision, just as we acknowledge the opinions of those who were offended by what was said in the film."

The gallery added: "The aim of this project was to give artists the opportunity to create works as personal and creative responses to our collection. The work was presented as an artistic piece, not a documentary, and the views expressed in the film do not necessarily reflect those of the NPG."

Lord Roberts said Cammock "should be commended for doing the honourable thing and putting historical truth over her artistic licence".

(c) Sky News 2026: Artwork blaming Churchill for mass starvation taken down from National Portrait Gallery