Reflecting the falling art market and the lower incomes prevailing in the wake of the global financial crisis, gifts of art and other bjects to publicly funded museums, galleries and libaries shrank dramatically.
Figures contained in the annual report of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.for the year ended June 30, 2010 show the value of gifts made to approved public institutions under the Cultural Gifts Program (CGP) fell from $82.9 million to $34.8 million.
This was partially offset by a rise in gifts to registered private institutions although these are such a diverse lot that it is harder to read too much into the figure's relevance for the visual arts.
At 516 donations the number of approved gifts under the CPG was down from 617 previously.
The figures are still compare fairly well with the early 2000s though. It may have been that a lot of anxious donors parted with art at the top of the market just before the GFC took hold.
The donations were valued at $28.9 million in 2006, $33.4 million in 2007 and $43.2 million in 2008. .
The CGP allows for tax deductibility at the average of two valuations of gifts made in kind to approved institutions.
Although the figures have tended to be lumpy, because of the the size and infrequency of the gifts, the latest figures should be more of an indication of the ups and downs of philanthropy as donors in recent years have been able to spread the donations in kind over several years.
They then do not squander the any of the value of the tax benefit of say a collection in any one year.
As the market improves, and taxable salaries and bonuses blow out, the popularity of the scheme should revive..
The downturn in the latest year may also owe in part to heightened vigilance by the Cultural Heritage Committee which policies the scheme to ensure it is not abused..
Would-be donors and their accountants have been asked more frequently to "please explain" any discrepancies between the price the donor paid for the works or produce additional evidence to support the valuations.
Some collectors are reputed to have made big tax killings by deft pursuit of bargains in the art market particularly by spotting up and coming talent.
Work secured the days after brushes and paint arrived at new Aboriginal communities has occasionally soared in value as news of the newly discovered genius has travelled.
This work has often been placed in regional galleries and other secondary art institutions when the market has peaked.
The walls of many such institutions also anxious to demonstrate their political correctness may now be filled.
Wall space may be in diminishing supply in the institutions which have been prepared to date to take it.
But smaller art museums and galleries rely more heavily on the scheme than big ones because they have less money. Bigger institutions can be more selective about what art they put on their walls.
The Cultural Heritage Committee has asked institutions to identify the scheme whenever a gift is made under it in order to further popularise the scheme.
Some donors do not like this because it suggests they are primarily tax mimimumisers. As a result, institutions are not always fully or readily forthcoming about the use of the scheme for fear of giving offence.
Small regional galleries in particular have limited acquisition funds and respect the scheme highly to grow their collections.
Big donations currently being processed and which may be reflected in the figures are the Anne Lewis gifts to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and the Newcastle Region Art Gallery.
The John Kaldor gift of contemporary art is also being processed by the Art Gallery of NSW.
The National Gallery of Victoria secured 276 gifts valued at $3.4 million up from 266 at $1.93 million previously, its annual report shows.
The acquisitions included, according to its annual report, a major John Brack, an Emma Minnie Boyd watercolour and a Moschino dress. The value of future donations will swell as the Lotte Smorgon gifts are processed.
The director of the NGV, Dr Gerard Vaughan, says promised gifts worth $12 million from Lotte Smorgon will be made under the Cultural Gifts Program.
"It is unlikely they will all be sent forward through the Cultural Gifts Committee at the same time," he says.
"The NGV curatorial team is undertaking detailed research on these works, and they may well go through in two separate groups, as the research is completed."
The annual report of the National Gallery of Australia declares it received a "rare jewel of a work" by Frederick McCubbin, Ships Williamstown.
In the previous year two art dealers donated to the Powerhouse Museum - a museum of decorative rather than fine arts - under the scheme.
Paul Greenaway gave a horse drawn carriage and Dr Gene Sherman, who formed the Sherman Art Foundation which seeks money to spend on the arts, gave contemporary Japanese fashion from her own wardrobe.
The Art Gallery of NSW receives a lot of support through tax exempt foundations but there are occasional mentions of the scheme in its reports.:
It acknowledged, for example, the following gift in the appendix:
graphy
"Simryn Gill (Singapore; Malaysia; Australia, b1959),
Run 2006
printed 2008, 1 type C photograph and 4 gelatin silver photographs.
Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program"
Gifts to Registered Cultural Organisations rose from $67.2 million to $74.4 million.
These institutions range from the Spaghetti Circus to the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. Including literary societies these could signal a drift in giving away from the visual arts.
Following the outcome of the 2010 election the arts portfolio was moved to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and is now called the Office for the Arts.
The work of the arts portfolio over the 2010-11 year will be reported in the Prime Minister and Cabinet annual report that comes out in the second half of this year.
