Alistair Hardaker | Image: Danseuses roses by Edgar Degas (Picture credit: The National Gallery, London)
Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gifts Schemes transfer £59.7m of items to institutions across Britain during 2024-25 financial year.
The Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gifts Schemes have delivered their most prolific year since 2020, transferring £59.7 million worth of cultural, artistic, scientific and heritage objects to UK museums, galleries, libraries and archives.
Arts Council England, which administers both schemes on behalf of DCMS, published its annual report today covering allocations made between April 2024 and March 2025.
The Acceptance in Lieu scheme allows individuals with Inheritance Tax bills to transfer important objects and archives to public institutions instead of paying tax. The Cultural Gifts Scheme enables UK taxpayers to donate heritage objects in return for a tax reduction based on a percentage of the item’s value.
Items transferred include a standing desk used by Benjamin Disraeli and Sir Winston Churchill, allocated to the National Trust’s Hughenden Manor, and Danseuses roses, a pastel created by Edgar Degas between 1897 and 1901, allocated to the National Gallery, London.
Other allocations include the political archive of Lord Geoffrey Howe, transferred to the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, and four medieval deeds related to the murderers of St Thomas Becket, transferred to the South West Heritage Trust in Taunton.
A portrait of Martha Swinburne by Pompeo Batoni has been allocated to the Laing Gallery in Newcastle, where it will be reunited with the portrait of her husband Henry Swinburne.
Through the Cultural Gifts Scheme, a collection of photographs by Bill Brandt has been allocated to the Tate, and a still life painting by Vanessa Bell has been allocated to the Charleston Trust for display at Charleston House, Firle.
Arts Council England has published case studies from the Walker Art Gallery, Museum & Art Swindon, The Hepworth Wakefield, University of Cambridge Library and National Museums Scotland.
Michael Clarke CBE, Chair, Acceptance in Lieu Panel said: “Looking at the allocations made via Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gifts described in this 2025 Annual Report – our most prolific year since 2020 – I am struck both by their sheer diversity and that they were made to a wide range of institutions across the United Kingdom.”
