Artists come to the rescue of gallery

By LOUISE JURY

Two dozen of Britain's greatest artists, including Lucian Freud and Damien Hirst, are gifting art worth in excess of 3 million pounds ($7.8 million) to the Tate, the gallery has announced.

Collectors including Lord Attenborough have offered to bequeath important British paintings in a bid to fill the gaps caused by the Government's failure to provide cash for new works.

The gallery has seen its acquisitions budget plummet from $5.78 million in 1982 to less than half that today, even though prices continue to rocket.

Tate members (friends of the gallery) are also giving $2.6 million to kickstart an acquisitions fund which it is hoped will contain up to $260 million within a decade.

Sir Nicholas Serota, the Tate's director, said all the measures were intended to launch a more pro-active campaign to tackle the holes in its collections and make sure the gallery does not fall further behind its international rivals.

"Unless we can continue to add to the collection we will be failing future generations. Gaps created now are gaps which far too often become permanent," he said. "Unless the Tate is able to go on ... strengthening the collection, we will lose our ability not only to tell the story of art but our ability to bring major exhibitions to this country.

"It is a matter of real concern to us that we are not able to represent some of our leading British artists, let alone international artists, in a way we would wish to do."

Rising prices made it clear they needed to act early rather than late, he added.

He was criticised by some for buying Damien Hirst's installation called Pharmacy for $78,000 in 1994, yet the contents of Hirst's restaurant of the same name went for more than $28.8 million at auction last week.

The artists who have already pledged or given works include Frank Auerbach, Peter Blake, Anthony Caro, Patrick Caulfield, Tony Cragg, Michael Craig-Martin, Richard Deacon, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Leon Kossoff, Chris Ofili, Paula Rego and Rachel Whiteread.

Antony Gormley is giving Testing a World View, his first major work of iron body-forms, which was part of his Turner Prize-winning exhibition at the Tate in 1994.

"The Tate is a central focus for the continuing creative life of the UK," Gormley said.

Anish Kapoor, who is giving Blue Void, one of his distinctive deep blue sculptures, said it was essential that Tate increased its holdings of British and international contemporary art.

"Bolstering the collection in this way will help efforts to maintain Tate's position as a major international collection," he said.

International artists, including Louise Bourgeois and Rebecca Horn, have also pledged works.

Paul Myners, the chairman of the Tate's trustees, said: "The continuing reluctance of Government to increase the funds available for the purchase of works of art has resulted in several lost opportunities."

The Tate has lost important British works, such as Zoffany's portrait of the Willoughby de Broke family, often to galleries overseas. There are gaps in its holdings of, for example, surrealist art and early British art. It owns no Holbeins.

Yet the Tate already generates more than half its income, Myners said. It relies less on Government funding than any other national museum or gallery.

Alison Cole, of the National Art Collections Fund charity, said the idea of calling for gifts would be more likely to achieve results if donating collectors and artists were eligible for tax incentives.

- INDEPENDENT