Just
before Christmas, Arts Council England announced that a second artwork has been
donated to the nation under the Cultural Gifts Scheme.
Only
launched in March 2013, the scheme is intended to encourage lifetime gifts of
cultural and art objects to the nation. It is effectively a sister arrangement
to the better-known Acceptance in Lieu scheme, which encourages similar gifts
on death. Both offer tax breaks (although in respect of different taxes) in exchange for such donations.
The
new gift is an early Vincent Van Gogh
painting entitled Head of a Peasant Woman. Now on display in the National Gallery, it is an important addition to the collection, being the gallery’s earliest
work by the painter as well as its only Van Gogh figure painting (the other six
being landscape and still life works).
 |
| Head of a Peasant Woman, Vincent Van Gogh c. 1884. Credit: The National Gallery |
The first donation under the scheme was a
collection of manuscript lyrics and letters written by John Lennon, including
song lyrics and letters, given to the British Library in April 2013.
The scheme is applicable to objects which are deemed “pre-eminent”
in terms of their national,
scientific, historic or artistic interest. Where an
individual or a company owns such a pre-eminent object, they can choose donate
it to the nation in return for a reduction in their UK tax liabilities. The
amount of the reduction is based on a set percentage of the value of the
object donated, and that percentage differs depending on whether the donor is
an individual or a company; for an individual, the maximum reduction is 30% of
the value of the donated object, while for a company it is 20%.
Together, the two gifts represent tax settlements of £585,000.
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