Forty works that came to the nation through tax schemes will go on show in London
Forty works that reached public ownership through UK tax schemes will go on display together at the National Gallery in London, the first show of its kind. The exhibition, called "Collected", is due to open on 22 May 2027 and run until 5 September, according to ArtNews.
The works came to the state through two schemes run by Arts Council England on behalf of the UK government. The first, Acceptance in Lieu, lets a person settle an inheritance tax bill by handing over important cultural, scientific or historic objects to the nation. The second, the Cultural Gifts scheme, lets taxpayers offer objects in return for a cut in their corporation, income or capital gains tax, the tax charged on profit from selling assets. Both routes move works from private hands into public collections.
The National Gallery's own exhibition page says the 40 works were brought from private hands and will be gathered together for the first time at the Gallery. The list is wide. It includes Pablo Picasso's The Weeping Woman (1937), Lucian Freud's Portrait of Hermione Scott (1960) and Guercino's The Samian Sibyl with a Putto (1651). Two Picasso ceramics, Bird on a Nest (1949) and Flower Women/Standing Nudes (1948), sit alongside a Chinese porcelain jardiniere, a large ornamental plant pot.
Older paintings are part of the group too. The show includes Rembrandt's An Old Man in an Armchair (1650), which is attributed to Rembrandt, meaning experts link it to him without full certainty. Paul Cézanne's Avenue at Chantilly (1888) and Peter Doig's At the Edge of Town (1986–88) are also on the list. A Magritte, La condition humaine (1935), comes from the Norfolk Museums Service, a public museum service in eastern England.
National Gallery director Sir Gabriele Finaldi said the scheme's importance in bringing works into public ownership across the UK is impossible to overestimate. The Gallery has not said what the works are worth in total. Valuations for works that come in through these schemes are provided by Arts Council England, according to the Gallery's annual reports.
The show will not stay in London. After its run at the National Gallery, it will travel to the National Galleries of Scotland, the Ulster Museum in Northern Ireland, and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, the national museum service of Wales. That puts the same group of works in front of visitors in three more parts of the UK.
For anyone planning a visit, the Gallery is on Trafalgar Square in central London. The exhibition's dates are set for next May and the tour dates for the other venues have not been given. Those who want to follow the show can check the National Gallery's exhibition page as the details firm up.
