Tracking Down the Heritage "Donations"

Neither the Revenue Commissioners nor the Department of Finance keep track of the exact location of items donated under the Heritage Tax donations scheme.

This means that anyone who does want to go and view the heritage items that are donated in lieu of tax could have considerable difficulty tracking them down.

Revenue is required to publish the names/descriptions of heritage items donated and the values they were donated for, as part of Revenue's annual report. But Revenue does not publish where the items go after they are donated.

"It is not a requirement of the legislation to list where heritage items donated under Section 1003 are displayed. This is a matter for the approved body to whom the heritage item has been donated," a Revenue spokesman said.

The Department of Finance did give Village a full list of everything which has been donated under the act and the collections to which these items were donated. But the spokesman said they were unable to give details of where exactly the items are now.

Information from the National Gallery, which has received 14 donations worth almost €7.7 million, shows that at least four of these donations are not actually on display in the National Gallery.

Two paintings that were donated are "on loan and on display" at Farmleigh house. Another painting, Mrs Chadwyck Healy and Her Daughter, donated for a tax write off of €550,000, is not currently on display. And the JB Yeats Archive and the Castellated Rhine by Turner can both be viewed by appointment only.

Figures from Revenue's annual report show that a total of 41 heritage items, with a value of over €19.9 million, were donated between 1995 and 2003.

More up-to-date figures, provided by the Department of Finance, show that 41 heritage items, with a value of over €22.8 million, were donated between 1995 and 2004.

Items worth €5.176 million were donated in 2004, according to the Department of Finance. A painting valued at over €233,000 was received by the National Gallery; Leon/Joyce papers worth over €2.8 million were received by the National Library; and the McClelland Collection of 89 art works, valued at €2.14 million, was received by the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

The maximum amount of heritage donations that can be made in a year is €6 million.

Laura Noonan