An act of artistic philanthropy on a par with Britain’s greatest – including bequests by Samuel Courtauld and Henry Tate – was unveiled today in a move that will see 725 works of postwar and contemporary art donated to the nation.

Anthony d
The London dealer Anthony d’Offay is giving over almost his entire collection – now conservatively valued at £125m – for the price he paid originally. The collection contains some of the finest works by the most important artists of the last 50 years, including Joseph Beuys, Gilbert and George, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst. It will be called Artist Rooms and it will be jointly owned and managed for the nation by the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate.

The scale of the donation is remarkable: enough art to easily fill a floor and a half of London’s Tate Modern. Artist Rooms will take the form of 50 rooms of contemporary art by 25 artists, with the intention that they will be seen across the UK and not just in London and Edinburgh. The first partners will include galleries as far apart as Inverness, Bexhill and Cardiff.

Andy Warhol Skulls
Andy Warhol, Skulls

D’Offay is offering the art at the original price paid rather than its current value. That amounts to almost £28m with £10m each being paid by the British government and the Scottish government. The remaining £8m will come from the Art Fund (£1m) and National Heritage Memorial Fund (£7m).

Much of the art will plug significant gaps in Britain’s national collections. Three rooms will comprise 69 black-and-white photographs by the pioneering Diane Arbus who, despite her reputation as one of the greatest American photographers, is not represented at either Tate or the National Galleries of Scotland.

Gilbert & George, Existers
Gilbert & George, Existers

It is a similar story for other artists. Tate holds just one work by Jeff Koons and the NGS none. Now D’Offay is giving over 17 Koons works including Winter Bears, 1988. Robert Mapplethorpe, the boundary-pushing American photographer is not represented at all, but now three rooms will be filled with 64 photographs, probably the best collection in the world after the Guggenheim’s.

D’Offay is also donating a breathtaking collection of 136 works by Joseph Beuys, including 20 sculptures; nine works by Gilbert and George including one of their earliest together, George the Cunt and Gilbert the Shit from 1970; five Damien Hirsts including his largest early spot painting and a sheep in formaldehyde; six important works filling three rooms by German artist Anselm Kiefer; 14 works which at a stroke vastly improve the collection of Gerhard Richter; and 22 works by American Ed Ruscha.

Via guardian.co.uk

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