Key Campaign Achievements 1995-2005

January 2006In these ten years alone The Art Fund campaigned on a range of issues affecting the cultural life of the nation - from persuading the Treasury not to sell off its collection of silver, to leading the campaign for free entry to national museums.

1995 – 1996: Treasure Act 1996

Prior to 1996, the arcane laws governing finds of treasure dated back to the reign of Richard I. The Art Fund recognized that the proposed new Act represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for significant reform. Accordingly it played an active briefing role while the legislation was debated in Parliament, providing politicians and press with the background to what were little-understood issues - including the recommendation to expand the definition of treasure, to introduce a duty to report finds, and to abolish the bizarre system under which treasure cases were determined on "proof" (hundreds of years after the event) that the found items had been deliberately buried by their owner. The Act is generally considered to have been a notable success: the number of reported finds has increased significantly and museum collections have been enriched as a consequence.

1997 – 2001: Free admission campaign

The Art Fund became one of the public champions of the free admission cause, dramatically raising its profile among politicians, museums, the public and the media and gaining the long-standing backing of the national press, particularly The Guardian and The Independent. We produced visitor statistics, comment and insight that transformed the debate, and continually fed new research to press and supporters. The campaign is regarded as one of the most successful in our history (see VAT campaign below).

1998 onwards: Increased funding for Regional Museums and Renaissance in the Regions

The Art Fund successfully campaigned to prevent the closure of Buckinghamshire County Museum, and the Hatton Gallery (Newcastle), and to help see the Bowes Museum through a funding crisis that threatened its existence. It also lobbied publicly and privately for greater funding for regional museums, and is a key supporter of Renaissance in the Regions - a government-funded scheme aimed at revitalising regional museums. David Barrie, Director, National Art Collections Fund, was invited to become a member of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) board, which is rolling out the Renaissance programme across the UK.

1999: Major campaign to secure public funding for great works of art

In 1999 we drew public attention to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s (HLF’s) gradual withdrawal of support for works of art and campaigned for a reversal of this policy, publicising rejected Heritage Lottery Fund grants, drawing attention to situations where the Art Fund had to step in to fill the gap, and providing a frank response to the HLF’s strategic plan. The press widely printed our ‘warnings’ that major works of art would leave the country following a fall in Lottery funding, and after substantial coverage in the press and much private lobbying, including the Art Fund’s evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee  the proposed HLF acquisitions budget was doubled. In the process, the Art Fund was described by the press as ‘indispensable’ (Evening Standard, March 1999), and ‘the first, rather than the last port of call’ (Financial Times, April 1999). As a result, supporting great works of art, then regarded as ‘politically uncool’ (Art Newspaper, May 1999), is now seen as a public good and a Treasury concern.

1999 onwards: Safeguarding gifts and bequests

The Art Fund raised the profile of issues relating to the wishes of donors, and safeguarding bequests, through publicity surrounding Sir Denis Mahon’s proposed bequest, and comment on the Burrell Bequest, plus active promotion of individual gifts made through the Art Fund. This has contributed to a rise in the number of gifts and bequests being offered through the Art Fund, and has raised public awareness of the importance of private donors. Recent publicity generated around the Saatchi gift, Colin St John Wilson’s gift and the Cecil Collins bequest have helped keep these issues in the public eye.

1999-2003: Burghers of Calais restoration and redisplay

The Art Fund successfully campaigned to draw attention to the poor conservation of public sculpture, focussing on Rodin’s Burghers of Calais, which it had donated to the nation in 1913. It proceeded to win the support of Rodin experts, Royal Parks, planning agencies and heritage bodies for its plans to restore the sculpture and redisplay it on a new plinth in newly landscaped surroundings. This complex project was completed in 2003, and Rodin’s Burghers of Calais now occupies pride of place in Victoria Tower Gardens. The Royal Parks has agreed to an annual maintenance programme which will provide a model for the future care of public sculpture under its auspices.

2000/1: VAT campaign

At the request of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Art Fund led the groundbreaking campaign to reform the VAT regime as it applied to national collections. We produced the definitive paper for the Treasury, and after months of campaigning in the press and lobbying (including a special debate in the House of Lords) the campaign was successfully concluded with the proposed reforms being addressed in the 2001 Budget. This led to the introduction of free admission at all national museums and galleries, and a consequent 75% rise in visitor numbers. The Times wrote under the headline ‘Free Museums bring families flocking back’; ‘The fight to persuade the Government to meet its pre-election promise to abolish charging – caving in to thirty years of campaigning by the art world – was led by the National Art Collections Fund’ (7 January 2001). The Burlington Magazine summed up by stating that ‘Congratulations are in order to the Secretary of Sate for Culture, but above all to Sir Denis Mahon, the National Art Collections Fund, and the Charities Tax Reform Group who devised the solution that has essentially been adopted. It is a most remarkable example of what can be achieved by intelligent drafting and tireless lobbying’ (Editorial April 2001).

2001/2: Loan partnerships abroad

The Art Fund protested about the Royal Armouries’ plans to send Tower of London items – including Art Fund-assisted objects - on long-term loan to Louisville, USA. After lengthy negotiations, the Royal Armouries plans had to be revised and the Art Fund’s concerns were taken on board. This loan agreement will act as a prototype for further partnerships between national museums and collections overseas, and as a result we have also tightened up our grant conditions.

2002: Treasury Silver

When it was discovered that the Treasury planned to sell off part of its valuable collection of historic silver (which belongs to the nation), the Art Fund joined forces with the Silver Trust to lobby urgently against this. As a result, the pieces were withdrawn from auction, and the silver was placed on long-term loan to the V&A Museum. This has set a precedent in preventing the sale of national assets from government departments.

2003: Saving Heritage

The Art Fund provides key spokespeople on saving art for the nation, offering expert comment every time a work is endangered (recent examples include Reynolds’ Portrait of Omai, and the Macclesfield Psalter). Our ‘Saving Heritage’ Campaign was launched at a press conference on the back of the Omai appeal, resulting in press articles, and anticipating the launch of the Goodison Review. The Art Fund’s longstanding campaign and expertise on the issues of Gift Aid, VAT, and AIL, contributed to Sir Nicholas Goodison being appointed to produce this review, entitled Saving Art for the Nation, for the Treasury. In this tradition, the Art Fund’s current campaign,'Living and Giving' ,aims to persuade government to introduce a new income tax incentive, which will encourage lifetime gifts of works of art and artefacts to our public collections.

November 2003: Centenary Conference

The Art Fund Campaigns department conceived and organised what transpired to be a ground-breaking conference on the future of saving art for the nation. The event generated nationwide debate, front page national coverage, and leader comment praising the Art Fund for providing the forum for this crucial debate. It was described as ‘a landmark event’ and ‘historic’ by both the DCMS and the Export Reviewing Committee. As a direct result, the Museums Association (MA) set up a Review of Collecting, with a working group including representatives from the national museums, regional museums, and ourselves. This resulted in the report 'Collections for the Future' published in June 2005, which recommended ways in which museums can enrich their collections and make better use of what they already have.

The then Arts Minister, Estelle Morris, in the Conference’s opening Address said: ‘I want to put on record the role that the Art Fund has played as a campaigning organisation. It has gone beyond raising money to buy valuable works of art. It was one of the leaders and the longer stayers in the free admission campaign, and I know, from having met you, that the campaigning days aren’t over. I just want to recognise that and thank you for that.’

2004-2005: The Macclesfield Psalter Campaign

When the Macclesfield Psalter, a rare 14-century English prayer book, was bought at auction by the Getty Museum, California for £1.7million and then export-stopped by the UK government, the Art Fund leapt to action to save this treasure for the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The Art Fund offered a £500,000 grant as ‘challenge funding’ to encourage other funding bodies to add their support, and launched a public appeal to save the Psalter on the BBC’s ‘Culture Show’, which captured the public imagination. A concerted effort to keep the media interest in the appeal high, along with negotiations with government and other grant-giving bodies and trusts, meant that with just weeks to go before the export-stop deadline, the target of £1.7m was finally reached. The welcome news, announced at a press conference on 24 January 2005, was broadcast on television and radio news throughout the evening. All sections of the media applauded the acquisition, with The Daily Telegraph announcing that the Psalter’s ‘prayers had been answered’ and The Daily Mail devoting several pages to the ‘Secrets of the Saucy Psalter’!