Lee Miller and Roland Penrose's Sussex home transferred to new charity

Farleys House & Gallery, the Sussex home of Surrealist artist Roland Penrose and photographer Lee Miller, has been transferred to a newly established charity to secure its future. The decision, driven by lessons from the Covid pandemic, was announced by Antony Penrose, who discovered Miller's archive in the attic nearly 50 years ago. The charity will own the house, farmland, and associated buildings, while the Lee Miller Archive remains in family ownership with exclusive management rights granted to the charity. Trustees include former BFI chief executive Amanda Nevill and National Gallery curator Patrick Elliott. The move follows renewed attention from the film Lee and Tate Britain's Miller retrospective, but family members emphasize the pandemic's role. Penrose bought the farmhouse in 1949 for Miller's recuperation after she witnessed Dachau's liberation. The house hosted artists like Pablo Picasso, Leonora Carrington, Joan Miró, Dorothea Tanning, and MoMA's Alfred Barr. The charitable structure will allow Farleys to pursue museum accreditation and expand as a photography center outside London, building on exhibitions of Dorothea Tanning, Eileen Agar, and Dorothy Bohm.