Touring exhibition announced to celebrate objects acquired under tax-relief schemes

Arts Council England (ACE) has announced a free touring exhibition displaying 40 objects that have entered public collections through Acceptance in Lieu and the Cultural Gifts Scheme.

Kicking off at the National Gallery in London from May 2027, the Collected exhibition will feature Picasso ceramics from Leicester Museum and Art Gallery’s collection and Peter Doig’s 1968 At the Edge of Town, which the National Galleries of Scotland acquired in 2021.  

The exhibition will close in London late September and will subsequently travel to Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales in Cardiff, National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh and Ulster Museum in Belfast throughout 2027 and 2028.

The exact dates and contents of each exhibition showing are yet to be confirmed. Max Ernst’s Max Ernst montrant à une jeune fille la tête de son père (on loan from National Galleries of Scotland) and Jacob van Ruisdael’s The Cornfield (on loan from National Museums NI) will be shown in all four venues.

The National Galleries of Scotland will borrow additional works acquired through the schemes to complement the core group while the Ulster Museum and Museum Wales will only show the core group and works from their own collections.

On display at the National Gallery’s Collected exhibition

22 May – 5 September 2027

The London leg of the touring exhibition will show around 40 works. These include a selection of modern and contemporary works such as Pablo Picasso’s The Weeping Woman (on loan from Tate); Lucian Freud’s Portrait of Hermione Scott (on loan from Lakeland Arts; and René Magritte’s La condition humaine (on loan from Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery); and the Hamilton-Rothschild tazza, a large Byzantine bowl that dates from the mid-16th century (on loan from National Museums Scotland).

Ceramics by Picasso such as his decorative plate Bird on a Nest and Flower Women/Standing Nudes (all on loan from Leicester Museum and Art Gallery) will also be on show. The most recently made work on display will be Peter Doig’s At the Edge of Town (on loan from the National Galleries of Scotland).

Visitors will also see a Chinese porcelain jardiniere (on loan from Strawberry Hill House and Garden) famously associated with British politician Horace Walpole, whose cat Selima drowned in it.

The National Gallery will display a core group of eight paintings from its own collection, including Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s Italian Woman, Paul Cezanne’s Avenue at Chantilly and John Singer Sargent’s Wineglasses.

Calls for more equitable distribution of artworks

First introduced in 1910, Acceptance in Lieu allows individuals to offset inheritance tax or estate duty bills by transferring important cultural, scientific or historic objects to the nation. The Culture Gifts Scheme, meanwhile, was launched in 2013 and enables UK taxpayers to reduce their tax liability by donating objects.

Baroness Margaret Hodge's recent review of the arts council and its activities made particular mention of Acceptance in Lieu and the Cultural Gifts Scheme, calling for more to be done to raise awareness among museums.

“ACE should take a more proactive role in raising awareness of the Acceptance in Lieu, Cultural Gifts scheme and the Government Indemnity Scheme,” the report recommended, adding: “Museums felt that the benefits of the scheme were enjoyed by too few museums and it might be that new incentives could be introduced to encourage a more equitable distribution of works of art.”

In response to the Hodge report, the government said it would work with the arts council to “improve public access and understanding of these schemes, which strengthen and protect our country’s cultural heritage, and which support the manifesto commitment to increase the number of loans from national museum collections to communities across the country”.

No data exists that highlights the national and regional spread of objects under the schemes, or what percentage of objects are allocated to national versus non-national organisations.

2025 was the second most successful year for both schemes in recent years, narrowly beaten by 2020 when 52 objects worth £64m were given to the nation.

During the 12 months to 31 March 2025, a total of 32 cases went through the schemes (seven through Culture Gifts Scheme and 25 through Acceptance in Lieu) with objects worth a collective £59.7m accepted on behalf of the nation.

Darren Henley, the chief executive of ACE, said the Collected exhibition “underlines the importance of Acceptance in Lieu and the Cultural Gifts Scheme in enriching all our lives”.

“It is fitting that our National Gallery is bringing these wonderful examples together for the first time and giving them the prominence that they deserve,” he added.

Local authority-funded organisations, university museums and collections, National Trust properties and independent museums governed by a charitable trust are all eligible to apply to acquire objects under Acceptance in Lieu and the Cultural Gifts Scheme.

Michael Clarke, the chair of the Acceptance in Lieu panel, which decides which objects to accept and allocates them accordingly, said: “In these challenging times these schemes make a magnificent contribution to this great cause of placing an enormous range of cultural objects and works of art in public ownership, accessible to all.

“This exhibition offers a flavour of what has already been achieved and is designed to promote greater awareness and use of these wonderful schemes.”