December 21, 2020 at 1:00pm
British taxpayers donated artworks worth a record-breaking total of $87 million to UK arts institutions this year as part of the government’s Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) tax program, which allows individuals gifting works of national importance to UK institutions to write off inheritance tax debt,
The Art Newspaper reports. According to Arts Council England, the scheme gained significantly in popularity this year, as did the Cultural Gifts Scheme, which allows living individuals to donate works in exchange for tax breaks.
Among the works gifted were a Paul Gaugin manuscript—the donation of which satisfied $8.7 million in inheritance debt—to London’s Courtauld Institute. Featuring nearly thirty illustrations, the book-length work was made by the artist in his hut on a remote Polynesian island just two months before his death at age fifty-four. It is the only major manuscript by the French Post-Impressionist to be held by a British collection.