In total the items settled £40m of tax.
The government said 2020 was a record-breaking year for the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) and Culture Gifts Scheme (CGS) schemes. The AIL scheme allows for the ownership of works of art to be transferred to the nation in lieu of inheritance tax. Both schemes are administered by the Arts Council England.
Sir Nicholas Serota, chair of Arts Council England, said: “Despite the challenges facing the cultural sector, there is some cause for celebration in knowing that cultural artefacts with a market value of nearly £65m have entered public collections across the UK this year, which is a record high for the schemes.”
Edward Harley, Chair, Acceptance in Lieu Panel, said: “Two thirds of allocations have been made to institutions outside London and exciting acquisitions have been made by the national museums in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The variety of objects remains as diverse as ever and it is particularly exciting that the number of institutions receiving items through the schemes for the first time continues to grow.”
Among the items allocated to museums and galleries are 15 works by German-British painter Frank Auerbach (b. 1931) to the Ashmolean
Museum in Oxford and a group of 32 monoprints by Russian artist Naum Gabo (1890-1977) which will go to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, The
Pier Arts Centre, Orkney, The Hepworth Wakefield, the Fitzwilliam Museum and
Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.
A work by Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was allocated to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (see above).
Other items saved included archival material including that of Conservative politician Peter Carington, who served as Foreign Secretary under Margaret Thatcher, and barrister Jeremy Hutchinson, who defended Penguin Books over its publication of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
'First State' by William Blake. One of six works by Blake from the estates of Mary Keynes and Stephen Keynes to be accepted and acquired via the Acceptance in Lieu scheme by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Photo courtesy of Currey & Co.
Other items to be acquired include works from the collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes and offered from the estates of Mary Keynes and Stephen Keynes.
These items were copies of The Acorn magazine and six works by William Blake (1757-1827).
The Acorn is a childhood magazine, running to 15 issues, produced by members of the Keynes family, most famously the economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946).
The Acorn magazines and autograph collection have been allocated to Cambridge University Library and the Blake works have been allocated to the Fitzwilliam Museum.
The number of new institutions receiving allocations under the Cultural Gifts Scheme continues to grow. Among them is North Hertfordshire Museum in Hitchin.
It received The Pond at Letchworth by Spencer Gore (1878-1914) of the Camden Town Group.
'The Pond at Letchworth' by Spencer Gore has been acquired by North Hertfordshire Museum in Hitchin, Hertfordshire via the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.
It was painted in 1912, just two years before his death from influenza. Letchworth was the first of the pioneering Garden Cities funded by Ebenezer Howard, who conceived the idea of the Garden City.
This work is among the earliest views by an artist of international standing to be set within the newly built Garden City of Letchworth.
The picture was accepted from the estate of Constance Irene Gore. It returns ‘home’: the museum is just four miles from where it was painted.
