Rare works by Edgar Degas and Ben Nicholson are among the gifts bestowed to the UK's public collections as part of the government's Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) tax scheme, which allows for inheritance tax debts to be written off in exchange for the acquisition of objects of national importance.
Its younger sibling, the Cultural Gifts Scheme, allows for donors to give works during their lifetime in exchange for tax reductions based on a set percentage of the value of the item they donate. According to a report from Arts Council England (ACE), the total value of the objects gifted under both schemes between April 2024 and March 2025 is £59.7m, with the amount of tax settled totalling £39.3m.
Degas’s Ballet Dancers, a pastel from 1888 showing four dancers at rest, was allocated to the National Gallery in London under the AIL scheme last year. “The offer [from the estate of Ann Marks] settled £7.9m of tax and the National Gallery … has made good the difference of £1.6m,” according to the ACE report.
Three paintings by Ben Nicholson, including Kingwater Valley, Cumberland (1929), were allocated to Kettle’s Yard gallery in Cambridge, while a fourth work by the artist, 1974 (Moonrise), was donated to Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. The four works were accepted as part of AIL from the estate of Angela Verren Taunt. “All paintings were in acceptable condition and fairly valued,” says the ACE report.
A collection of 73 photographs by the photographer Bill Brandt (1904-83), created from the 1930s to 1979, was donated by John-Paul Kernot to Tate under the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The report adds that this selection of tonal prints, made around the same time as the negatives, is rich in wartime photographs and landscapes, including Tree in Autumn with crescent moon (1942).
Vanessa Bell’s Vase, Flowers and Bowl (around 1918-20) was donated to the Charleston Trust in Lewes, also under the CGS initiative, for display at Charleston House, Firle. “This still life painting is especially interesting as it seems to mark a mid-point between her earlier abstract phase and the more realistic style adopted by Bell in the 1920s,” says the report.
In 2021, the Radev Collection, which donated Bell’s painting, used the CGS to give the Charleston Trust a group of erotic drawings by Bell’s lover, Duncan Grant. The Radev Collection was founded by Mattei Radev, a post-war Bulgarian migrant to the UK.
Nicholas Serota, the chair of ACE, says in a statement: “At a time when public funding is limited and budgets for acquisitions are under considerable pressure, Acceptance in Lieu and the Cultural Gifts Scheme are crucial routes by which public collections can acquire culturally significant objects.”
