“The Royal Academy of Arts, the body that has represented Britain’s leading artists for more than 200 years, is facing a grave financial crisis. Its splendid corridors are riven with talk of plots and bad management, and unless it scores another blockbusting hit with the ‘Turks’ exhibition, to be staged next year, it may have to sell more of its assets. A new president will be elected on Tuesday, in Vatican-style seclusion, inside the academy’s stately home, Burlington House in London’s Piccadilly. But when the 80 academicians on the general assembly have made their decision, their newly anointed leader will become the figurehead of an organisation saddled with potentially crippling money problems.”