Displaying items by tag: acceptance in lieu scheme

An important archive comprising Lucian Freud’s sketchbooks, drawings and letters has been acquired by the nation from the estate of Lucian Freud through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme. The archive has been permanently allocated to the National Portrait Gallery, which in 2012 staged the acclaimed Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition, the Gallery’s most visited ticketed exhibition.

The National Portrait Gallery plans to make the archive, which has never been published or exhibited, accessible to the public.

Lucian Freud’s treasured collection of paintings and drawings by his friend Frank Auerbach is to be distributed to galleries across the UK in lieu of around £16m in inheritance tax, it has been announced.

The 40 paintings and drawings were offered to the nation after Freud’s death in 2011, representing the largest ever single agreement under the acceptance in lieu (AIL) scheme.

On Monday Arts Council England, which administers the scheme, announced that every part of the UK would benefit, with galleries in cities including Belfast, Aberdeen, Cardiff and Newcastle all set to be get Auerbachs.

The Ashmolean has acquired a painting by John Constable, RA (1776–1837) which has been accepted by the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. "Willy Lott’s House from the Stour (The Valley Farm)" was painted in c. 1816–18 and is the first finished work by Constable to enter the Ashmolean’s collection.

The picture shows one of the artist’s most personal subjects, which appeared in his work throughout his life from 1802 until it reached its final form in "The Valley Farm," exhibited in 1835 (now at Tate). The farm building is also seen from a different angle in "The Hay Wain," painted 1821 and now at the National Gallery.