But the national museums and galleries are finding it difficult and the regionals are finding it almost impossible." Since 1993, when the ring-fencing for acquisitions for national museums ended, the purchasing power of the major institutions has fallen by 90 per cent. However, the issue of further tax breaks for art and heritage moved further up the political agenda this week when the National Art Collections Fund presented the Treasury with a detailed proposal on how to encourage more giving after more than a year of discussions on the issue. Alison Cole, of the National Art Collections Fund, said it was recommending a new relief against income tax for gifts of cultural assets, whether paintings or dinosaur bones Any offers would be assessed independently, as with AIL Ms Cole said: "Museums need to collect to stay alive. " The range of objects is breathtaking, from an ancient Egyptian bronze to 20th-century political archives," he said. Mr Wood said 140 offers worth £140m had been accepted since 2000. There were also papers from the time of Henry I, other papers belonging to the 20th-century English poet Kathleen Raine and a selection of 17th- and 18th-century costumes.
Other items this year include art by the abstract painter Ben Nicholson, Georges Seurat, George Romney and probably the last painting by the British surrealist Christopher Wood before he committed suicide. It has settled more than £1m in tax and is only the third Melendez to go into a British public collection, the National Gallery. A selection of Italian paintings from Longleat, the great country estate in Wiltshire, has been accepted in lieu of tax worth more than £3m, while the Holburne Museum in Bath is to receive an 18th-century cabinet that had been held in a private collection in Gloucestershire for 300 years. Mark Wood, the chairman of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) which administers AIL, said: "There is a chronic shortage of funding for acquisitions in this country and the MLA urges the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Treasury to build on the good work of AIL in creating a more favourable tax regime to encourage individual and corporate giving." The artefacts accepted in the past year include a still life with lemons and oranges by the 18th-century Spanish artist Luis Melendez, one of Europe's great still life painters. The annual report of the Acceptance in Lieu scheme (AIL) shows that several hundred items in 28 lots were accepted for display in public collections.
This is less than last year, when £21m worth of items were saved, prompting calls from art campaigners for other tax breaks to encourage gifts of art and heritage from the living. Other highlights are three works by William Blake, including a pencil drawing of Isaac Newton which is the only known preparatory study for arguably Blake's most famous art work. Art and heritage worth £13m have been saved for the nation under a scheme that accepts historic works in place of inheritance tax. Among the treasures acquired in the past 12 months is a drawing by the 18th-century artist Sir Joshua Reynolds of Cupid and Psyche worth £420,000 that will now grace the Courtauld Gallery in London. As it is a young puppy it may well have just wandered away and got confused." Humper- dinck, whose real name is Arnold Dorsey, had his glory years in the Sixties and Seventies. His version of the country song "Release Me" topped the charts in 1967. His lavish sideburns and flamboyant wardrobe appealed to his devoted female audience.'Dognapping' on the rise* Stolen lurcher pups are said to sell for about £80, while a Crufts champion bitch stolen last year was said to have a value of £50,000.* Two teenagers who had allegedly demanded £3,000 for the return of a dog are awaiting trial.* DogLost, which helps reunite people with their dogs, says about 80 per cent of the 1,300 cases they have dealt with involve "suspicious circumstances".* About 10 per cent of those have been asked for some kind of ransom or reward before the dog is returned.* The owner of a seven-month-old Rhodesian ridgeback recently paid £500 for its safe return.* Owners can insure against theft of their pets, from £7 a month..
