What do works by Mark Rothko, Constantin Brancusi and John Singer Sargeant have in common? You would be right to guess that UK museums would struggle to buy one on the open market. But in America works by these artists are among those in a gift worth £1bn to the Seattle Art Museum from 53 of the region's top private collectors.
Is this a one-off? Apparently not; The Art Newspaper reports that a number of US institutions have benefited from similarly fabulous gifts. And these gifts are made by wealthy philanthropists while they are still alive.
The US has long benefited from a culture of cultural giving based on proper recognition of donors, and extremely generous tax incentives. 100% of the value of gifts of cash or works of art to museums can be deducted from income tax; and there's a bill being put before Congress to be even more generous, allowing artists to donate their works to public collections. But it's not just the US; Australia, Ireland and Canada all allow gifts of works of art to be offset against income tax, albeit less generously.
So what of the UK? The tax system is there to help you if you're dead, with a fine system to write off inheritance tax. It will also help if you've had something around for a while and built a healthy capital gain. But if you've made a lot of money yourself, perhaps built a bit of an art collection, there's no income tax benefit to be had by giving some of it away to a museum - though oddly that is not the case if you have land, property or shares.
Despite the enormous wealth being generated in the City, the UK lags behind in the terms of the scale of private, charitable donations - so says the government's own report into Higher Education funding. Art Fund research last year showed that our great national museums are being outspent on acquisitions by their competitors abroad - all of which benefit from better tax incentives. Indeed, our big nationals are sometimes raising more money from their American Friends than from UK taxpayers - bizarre indeed!
Cultural giving is also about donor recognition. But encouraging people to give in their lifetime helps build a relationship between donor and institution which ultimately brings far more private money into the system than the tax relief it costs the state. Everyone knows the pressure on public funds is immense; why on Earth not give people a break, and see what happens? Sometimes to change behaviour you need to give people a nudge.
