“Navigating the art market as a private buyer”
In March, Charles spoke to Jo Thompson, part of the Art & Cultural Property team at Forsters, and host Robert Linden Laird Craig about the art market. In particular, how buyers can approach becoming collectors in the face of pressure from the many people and organisations, all with very different objectives, vying for attention.
Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside, GCB, CMG, DSO (1880-1959) was one of the most influential figures in the British army during the Interwar period, holding important positions in Russia, Persia, India and Gibraltar, and the Staff College at Camberley. His diaries, which run from 1918 to 1959 in 73 volumes, record many of the key events, debates and personalities during a significant period of British military history. The archive includes these diaries as well as photographic and printed papers collected on his travels. Military objects including: Field Marshal’s Baton, made by Garrard & Co, presented by King George VI; medals; his awards; insignia; and decorations presented to him between 1901 and 1939. The archive and militaria were each considered pre-eminent under the first and third criteria and have been permanently transferred to the following institutions as an Acceptance in Lieu of Inheritance Tax. The archive has been allocated to King’s College London for the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives and the militaria has been permanently transferred to the Royal Artillery Museum, Larkhill.
Sir Winston Churchill’s travelling painting easel and case have been permanently allocated to The National Trust for Chartwell as part of the Cultural Gifts scheme. The easel comprises a square-shaped wooden box with detachable cylindrical legs, which screw in to form the stand and stored in a leather cylinder-shaped case. It was made by the Swiss firm Racher & Co in 1946; however subsequent modifications were made by the makers at Churchill’s request. The easel was well-used by Churchill, indeed traces of paint mixtures are still visible on the palette and various shipping labels remain attached to the leather carrying case.
In October 2022 Charles Cochrane spoke to Sarah Muir at Coutts about buying art and the need to take care. Charles talks about the need for collectors to develop their interest in art, understand the art market and then, when ready, investigate particular works of art.
Fifty-five sketchbooks by Mary Fedden OBE RA RWA (1915-2012), dating from 1953 to 2007 have been permanently allocated to the Tate as part of the Cultural Gift scheme. They contain over 1,000 works by Mary Fedden and around 30 by her husband, artist Julian Trevelyan (1910-88). The sketchbooks document her life and travels with her husband, recording landscapes and places they visited with many accompanying notes, studies and sketches.
He was the leading British musical figure of the early to mid Nineteenth Century championing German Romantic music and reintroducing Bach to the British public. He was the first Englishman to conduct the Leipzig Gewandhaus and was Britain’s greatest living composer writing symphonies, piano sonatas, oratorios and choral work. The Bodleian Library and Radcliffe Camera, University of Oxford acquired his manuscripts and the Royal Academy of Music, where he trained, was tutor and then principal, acquired Sir John Millais’ portrait of him. Both were transferred by an Acceptance in Lieu of Inheritance Tax for a combined value of £540,000.
This wonderful work by Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi now hangs in a museum in Copenhagen fulfilling a testamentary wish after we found a charitable vehicle to take benefit of the UK charitable relief to Inheritance Tax. We also offered a sale and donation without Inheritance Tax relief as an alternative.
We offer access to all areas of the art market and can handle very unusual items. In this case a collection of Toy Theatres which is now held by the V&A, Bristol Theatre Collection and Kent University who acquired via an Acceptance in Lieu of Inheritance Tax.
Julian Trevelyan was a major figure in Modern British art but after his death in 1988 he was somewhat eclipsed by his wife, Mary Fedden. After she died we advised her estate, leading to a white glove sale at Sotheby’s, London thereby funding the redevelopment of Durham Wharf, where the artists lived and worked and a major and long overdue solo show for Julian Trevelyan at Pallant House Gallery.
Hugh Wood and Giles Swayne are well respected British composers. Wood’s music is lyrical whereas Swayne’s work is hard to pin down, sometimes sacred, sometimes incorporating music from Africa where he lived. Their archives were acquired by the British Library which will act as custodians in perpetuity.
A wide range of items, presented to a very important British figure, were acquired by the National Trust to be shown in the house and at other locations such as the Imperial War Museum.
The tax relief on gifts of art to US museums is much more generous to donors than in the UK under the Cultural Gift Scheme. We recently advised and handled two transfers incorporating salesand donations to important US institutions.
