Acceptance in Lieu Report 2009/2010 Cover: Seaton Delaval; The North Front and Forecourt. © NTPL/John Hammond. Contents Preface 2 Introduction 3 1 Seaton Delaval 4 The National Trust 4 100 years of AIL 5 What has been acquired through AIL? 6 Value for money 8 Extension of the Scheme 8 Conditional exemption 8 Acknowledgments 8 1910-2010 highlights 9 AIL Cases 2009/2010 2 1. Medals of George Unwin DSO 16 2. Archive of the Earls of Romney 17 3. Adam de Colone: Earl of Winton and his Sons 18 4. Francis Grant: The Meet of the Fife Hounds 19 5. Degas Sculpture 20 6. Sir Peter Lely: Portrait of ‘Ursula’ 21 7. Seaton Delaval 22 8. Daniel Gardner: The Three Witches 24 9. Chattels from Lyme Park 26 10. Marcellus Laroon: A Musical Party 27 11. Chaïm Soutine: Jeune femme à la blouse blanche 28 12. Domenico Tiepolo: Café by the Quay in Venice 29 13. Paul de Lamerie: Four candlesticks 30 14. The Fitzwilliam silver soup tureens 31 15. Nine early 20th century British paintings 32 16. English delft plaque: The Royal Oak 35 17. Archive of the Earls of Kintore 36 18. Pollard collection of medals and plaquettes 37 19. Essex House Press books 38 20. Cornelis van Poelenburgh: Italianate Landscape 39 21. Collection of 20th century photography 40 22. R B Martineau: A Woman of San Germano 42 23. Papers from the Lyttelton Family Archive 44 24. Seat furniture from Hagley Hall 45 25. Euan Uglow: Laetitia 46 26. Graham Sutherland: Study for Thorns 47 27. Baruch Spinoza: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus 48 28. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff: Dangast Dorf 49 29. John Wilson: The Battle of Trafalgar 50 30. Jan Lievens: Portrait of the 1st Earl of Ancram 51 31. Bernard Meadows Collection 52 32. Archive of Dollie and Ernest Radford 53 33. Louis XIV Boulle cabinet on stand 54 Appendices 3 1. List of objects, allocations and tax values for 2009/2010 57 2. Members of the AIL Panel 58 3. Expert Advisers 2009/2010 59 4. Allocation of items reported in 2008/2009 60 Acceptance in Lieu Report 2009/2010 1 Preface Whenn i 1910 provision was first made for the settlement of Estate Duty, the forerunner of Inheritance Tax, by f offers o land to the nation, it cannot have been foreseen that this terse piece of 10 line legislation would stille b thriving 100 years later. It is a fitting climax to the first 100 years of the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme (AIL) that Seaton Delaval and much of its contents should be ceded to the nation and then passed to the National Trust. This masterpiece of 18th century English Baroque architecture by Sir John Vanbrugh has had a colourful history since it was completed in 1731. Through AIL and the work of the National Trust its s future i now secure. In its early years the AIL Scheme transferred many houses, their contents and the surrounding land into public ownership. As the scheme adapted to changing times, works of art were accepted and allocated, first to national museums and then to regional and local collections. Now there can be few, if any, major public collectionsn i the UK which have not been enriched by the AIL Scheme. It has provided a lasting legacy of important cultural objects which increase the ability of our public collections to engage with a wide public and which enrich all our lives. The centenary of AIL also provides an opportunity to look forward and in this respect the enthusiastic wordsf o the new Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt, in his first major policy statement on taking office were encouraging: “Of course, we already have a tax relief that has played a huge role in enhancing the collections of museums and galleries across the country: the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme. For 100 years now, this scheme has allowed the transfer of important heritage assets into public ownership in lieu of liability to inheritance tax and estate duties.” The role of private collectors and philanthropists in ensuring the vitality of the cultural sector is one that we can expect to hear more about as the new Government develops its plans for the sector. The experience of the AIL Scheme shows that there is a mutual benefit for each side in encouraging private collectors to become public donors. The next few years are going to be a challenging time for the cultural sector but there are also real opportunities to ensure that private benefactions return to the central place they enjoyed in an earlier period. So f many o our leading museums were founded on generous gifts and bequests and in the AIL Scheme’s centenary year it is appropriate that we should be encouraged to renew that spirit of looking upon our museums and archival repositories as places in which we all share and to which we contribute, whether thates b a a donor, a volunteer or simply as a visitor enriched and renewed by contact with our history and its cultural riches. We o need t encourage a renewed sense of shared ownership in our museums, libraries and archives, not simply because they are places we wish to visit but because they are repositories of what we value. The AIL Scheme is a model of how the tax system can successfully encourage the transfer of private objects into the public sphere. After 100 years, perhaps the best celebration of AIL would be to build on the scheme’s success and extend its reach by enabling owners of cultural treasures to do today, while they are living, what AIL currently only allows to be done tomorrow on their passing. Over the last decade the AIL Panel has been led by Jonathan Scott. His commitment, dedication and judgement have ensured that the scheme has prospered. He has generously agreed to stay on as Chair for a further few months to ensure a smooth transition for his successor. MLA and the wider museum and archive community owe him a considerable debt for his tireless work since 2000. He is surrounded by a panelf o experts who like him generously and freely give their time and knowledge to ensure the scheme works. I wish to thank them all for their work and acknowledge the very able assistance that is provided by the Panel’s secretariat from MLA’s Acquisitions, Export and Loans Unit under the capable hands of Gerry McQuillan. The Secretariat and its work will be re-located during the forthcoming year, but details remainoe t b worked out and users of the scheme should not notice any change in the quality of the service. Sir Andrew Motion Chair, MLA 2 Acceptance in Lieu Report 2009/2010 Introduction During 2009/2010 a wide selection of works of art and objects of historic interest was acceptedn i lieu, ranging from a Degas bronze of a young dancer to a charming scene of Venetian life by Domenico Tiepolo, from the medals of a Battle of Britain pilot to candlesticks by the great Huguenot silversmith, Paul de Lamerie, from a collection of somef o the finest photographs of the 20th century to distinguished 17th century portraits by Lely and Lievens. Above all, there was the acquisition of Sir John Vanbrugh’s great baroque house, Seaton Delaval, with its surrounding gardens and park as well as some important portraits and furniture. The total value of all this amounted to £15.7m, resulting in a tax settlement of £10.8m. The comparative figures for the last 10 years are set out below. Yearo t 31 March Numberf o cases Valuef o objects accepted Tax settled 2001 23 £24.6m £16.0m 2002 27 £35.1m £26.6m 2003 37 £39.9m £15.8m 2004 23 £21.7m £15.0m 2005 28 £13.0m £8.9m 2006 38 £25.2m £13.2m 2007 32 £25.3m £13.9m 2008 32 £15.2m £10.3m 2009 36 £19.8m £10.8m 2010 33 £15.7m £10.8m Totals 309 £235.5m £141.3m The variation of the ratio between the total value of the objects and their tax settlement values i largely due to the incidence of hybrid offers where the value of the object offered was larger than the amount of tax due, with the museum or gallery to which the object was allocated having to make up the difference. As usual, the national collections in London and Edinburgh benefited from the scheme and pictures, furniture, sculpture and archives were also allocated to Cambridge, Leeds and Chipping Campden. In addition, museums and galleries in Bristol, Birmingham, Falmouth, Exeter, Glasgow and Oxford received objects accepted in the previous year but t not a that stage advertised and allocated. We should explain that, when an offer is made without a specific condition as to the object’s destination, a temporary allocation is made while the availability of the object in question is advertised on the MLA website. Final allocations are made thereafter. Acceptance in Lieu Report 2009/2010 3 Seaton Delaval No great country house and its contents have been offered under the AIL Scheme since 1984. We were delighted, therefore, that Seaton Delaval should have been accepted together with some of its important contents and transferred to the National Trust. The house is one of the grandest and most imaginative creations of one of Britain’s greatest architects. The view from the steps between the colonnades to the distant sea is superb while the echoing spaces of the interior are wonderfully romantic. Many of the original Delaval family paintings and much furniture were destroyed in the fire which devastated the house in 1822; the present contents, mainly in the former service wing, were transferred to the house by Lord Hastings some 60 years ago and came from the Astley family’s property in Norfolk, a transfer that can be paralleled in a number of other country houses which have been furnished with chattels from other properties belonging to the family.