The works, which will now be on public view around the country, include statues from Castle Howard, a sculpture by Barbara Hepworth and a 17th Century lady's bodice.
Estelle Morris said:
"Our cultural heritage - as preserved and displayed in our museums and galleries - rightly enjoys a fine international reputation. The Acceptance in Lieu Scheme helps to enrich these public collections by providing important items at no cost to the museums. Thanks to the scheme, items accepted last year will now go on display around the country - in some cases, for the first time - for the enjoyment of all."
The Arts Minister also announced the allocation of four items, previously accepted under the scheme, to museums in London and Cambridge.
The Arts Minister's decisions follow recommendations made by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries that the items are sufficiently pre-eminent to be accepted by the nation and that they are correctly valued.
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Mark Wood, Resource's Chairman, commented:
"Resource is enormously proud of its role in advising the Minister on the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme which does so much to enrich the collections of museums, archives and libraries throughout the UK, making these wonderful, inspiring objects accessible to the public. This announcement marks another year of great success which has seen almost £40 million pounds of pre-eminent items join the collections of the nation."
Notes to Editors
Today also sees the launch of the Resource Acceptance in Lieu Scheme report for 2003. The report is available on the Resource website at:
http://www.resource.gov.uk/action/ail/00ail.asp
The objects that have been accepted are:
• Statuary at Castle Howard which satisfies £1,766,144 worth of tax;
• The Dead Christ Supported by Mourning Angels by Liberale da Verona which satisfies £1,050,000 worth of tax;
• Le Château de la Duchess du Berry by Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828) which satisfies £350,000 worth of tax;
• The Castlereagh Inkstand which satisfies £307,347.81 worth of tax;
• Architectural drawings of Claremont House which satisfies £227,500 worth of tax;
• A Victorian table and vase which satisfies £122,500 worth of tax;
• A sculpture by Barbara Hepworth known as Pierced Hemisphere II, which satisfies £119,000 worth of tax;
• Material relating to Camille Pissaro (1830-1903) and his family which satisfies £111,454 worth of tax;
• The archive of Marcus Brumwell (1901-1993) which satisfies £105,000 worth of tax;
• An archive of family papers which satisfies £91,455 worth of tax;
• A portrait Bust of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), which satisfies £70,000 worth of tax;
• An early 17th century English embroidered lady's bodice which satisfies £25,000 worth of tax;
• Portrait of Anthony Powell by Henry Lamb (1883-1960) which satisfies £17,500 worth of tax;
• Three Portraits by Nancy Sharp (1909-2001) which satisfy £12,250 worth of tax.
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Details of the items accepted in lieu of inheritance tax are:
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Statuary at Castle Howard. This accepted offer comprises a group of twenty six, mostly antique, sculptures which were acquired by the 4th Earl of Carlisle, Lord Morpeth on his Grand Tour during the 18th century and now displayed in-situ at the Grand Staircase, Grand Hall, and Classical Corridor, Castle Howard. Castle Howard was built by Lord Morpeth's father, the 3rd Earl of Carlisle as an Italianate palace in an English arcadia in which he could display his collection of antiquities. The Sculptures have been allocated to the National Museums Liverpool and the sculptures will remain in situ at Castle Howard.
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The Dead Christ Supported by Mourning Angels by Liberale da Verona. Liberale da Verona (c. 1445- 1527/9) was renowned, principally for his work as a book illuminator and it was only after 1476 that he turned to oil painting. The painting depicts an image of the Dead Christ and is believed to date from the late 1480s or 1490s. The painting has been allocated to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
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Le Château de la Duchess du Berry by Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828). Bonington was born in England but moved with his parents to France in 1818, where he enrolled in the studio of Baron Gros in 1820. The painting depicts the chateau of Marie Caroline (d. 1870), eldest daughter of Francis I of the Two Scillies, a leader of fashion and influential anglophile patron of the arts.
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The Castlereagh Inkstand. This accepted item is solid gold and was made by Storr and Rundell in 1818 from the freedom boxes presented to Lord Castlereagh (1769-1822) by 16 European Sovereigns in gratitude for his part, as Foreign Secretary, in the defeat of Napoleon and the role he played at the Congress of Vienna. A remarkably complete set of documentation exists for the commissioning of the inkstand including the detailed bill from Storr and Rundell to Lord Castlereagh. The Inkstand has been allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Architectural drawings of Claremont House. This offer is of a volume of architectural drawings relating to Claremont House, Esher, the house that Robert Clive (of India) commissioned in 1769. The album consists of 52 drawings by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, Henry Holland and Sir John Soane.
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A Victorian table and vase. This table and integral vase was made for the Great Exhibition of 1851 where it attracted considerable attention. It reflected the continuing appeal of Neoclassicism rather than the cutting edge of contemporary taste. It was based on a design of 1807 by Thomas Hope.
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Material relating to Camille Pissaro (1830-1903) and his family. This collection of about 600 items has been permanently allocated to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The Ashmolean already holds a large collection of Pissarro material which was donated during the 1950's and it is now the largest single resource for the study of Impressionism in the world. Camille Pissarro was a central figure in the Impressionist movement, working both as a painter and founding a dynasty of artists, notably his son Lucien (1863-1944).
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A sculpture by Barbara Hepworth known as Pierced Hemisphere II. This sculpture was carved from Hopton Wood stone in 1937/8, around the time that Hepworth (1903-1975) was generally considered to be developing an approach to sculpture that laid the foundations for the rest of her life's work. She was moving from a representational expression to one of greater and greater abstraction. There are relatively few sculptures by Hepworth from this period in British public collections.
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The archive of Marcus Brumwell (1901-1993). Marcus Brumwell was a businessman and art patron, with a lifelong connection to the artistic community of Cornwall. He co-founded the Stuart Advertising Agency which employed the leading contemporary artists of the day including Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Paul and John Nash and John Piper. Mr Brumwell and his wife Irene became lifelong friends with both Hepworth and Nicholson and even helped Hepworth buy Trewyn Studio in 1949 (now the Hepworth Studio run by the Tate Gallery).
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An archive of family papers. This archive relates to the Cholmley family and the lands they owned in North Yorkshire. Included in the offer is the medieval cartulary of Whitby Abbey, papers relating to Tangier in the 17th century and material relating to the East India Trade.
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A portrait Bust of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). This Bust of American poet Longfellow is by Edmonia Lewis (c.1843- c. 1912). Lewis was the first African-American sculptor to achieve international distinction. The Bust was commissioned directly from the sculptor by Henry Robertson Sandbach (1807-1895). Sandbach was a leading collector of contemporary sculpture and amassed an important collection, including works by John Gibson and Bertel Thorwaldsen.
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An early 17th century English embroidered lady's bodice. This bodice is said to have been made for Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, also known as Bess of Hardwick, though as she died in 1606, this seems unlikely. It comprises two bodice panels and two detached sleeves. The pattern of coloured silks, with roses, honeysuckle and grapes appears to be based on two designs in Thomas Trevelyon's two manuscript pattern books of 1608 and 1616. The bodice is remarkably unfaded given its age.
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Portrait of Anthony Powell by Henry Lamb (1883-1960). Lamb, in 1905 abandoned his medical studies and entered the Chelsea College of Art. There, through his friendship with Lytton Strachey and Lady Ottoline Morrell he became involved with the Bloomsbury Set. He drew and painted Strachey, Leonard Woolf, and exhibited at the second Post-Impressionist exhibition at the Grafton Galleries, 1912. The portrait has been allocated to the National Portrait Gallery.
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Each of Sharp's three sitters made a distinguished contribution to national life. MacNiece (1907-1963) is considered to be one of the major poets of the 20th century. Archbishop Huddleston (1913-1998) is recognised as the leading British campaigner of the anti-apartheid movement and Sir John Summerson (1904-1992), Curator of Sir John Soane's Museum for almost 40 years, is regarded, along with Nicholas Pevsner, as the leading British architectural historian of the last century.
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Details of items that have been accepted previously and have now been allocated are as follows:
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The British Museum has been allocated an Egyptian bronze figure of a ram. For further information please refer to DCMS news release 09/2003.
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The National Trust have been allocated a pair of George I walnut and seaweed-marquetry side chairs for display at Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire. For further information please refer to DCMS news release 09/2003.
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Acceptance in Lieu (AIL)
The provisions for the AIL procedure are contained in the National Heritage Act 1980, the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 and supplementary Finance Acts. Among other things, the provisions empower the Commissioners of Inland Revenue to accept certain property in whole or part satisfaction of inheritance tax (and its predecessors, estate duty and capital transfer tax) and any interest thereon.
In practice, qualifying property typically falls into the following categories: land; buildings; works of art including pictures; books; prints; archives; manuscripts; furniture; craft objects; historic objects; scientific objects; technological objects; and other such items. Objects may be accepted if the Secretary of State agrees to their pre-eminence in terms of national, scientific, historic or artistic interest as well as their valuation and condition. Objects may also be accepted where they are associated with a particular building and where the Secretary of State believes it desirable for the object to remain associated with the building or acceptance may be agreed where objects have a significant association with a particular place.
The Secretary of State has the power to direct where accepted property is placed and this includes provision to decide whether property may continue to be kept in a place with which it has a significant association. (This latter power enables the Secretary of State to decide if accepted items may be publicly displayed in situ.) The public has access to all items accepted under the procedure - chattels go to public collections and land, building and in situ offers must allow public access.
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Under the arrangements announced in the Spring Budget 1998, no acceptances in lieu require expenditure by the Department. Instead, the Revenue will accept items in lieu of taxes without seeking reimbursement from the Secretary of State.
The Revenue's Capital Taxes Office (CTO) refers competent offers of putatively "pre-eminent" or "associated" objects to the AIL Panel of Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries. The AIL Panel, having taken into account the views of independent experts, advises the Secretary of State on whether property offered is suitable for acceptance in lieu by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, in terms of its pre-eminence, condition and valuation as well as any condition in the offer as to allocation. Resource also advises the Secretary of State on questions of the allocation (both temporary and permanent) of such property. Where land or buildings are offered, the CTO refers directly to DCMS who consult advisers such as the Countryside Commission, the Forestry Authority and English Heritage. The National Archives (Historical Manuscripts Commission) advises the Secretary of State on the permanent allocation of records, archives and manuscripts.
