Taxpayers have settled their debts by handing their valuable art and cultural works to HM Revenue & Customs.
Letters from scientist Charles Darwin and lyrics penned by former Beatle John Lennon were among the works turned over to the nation instead of paying tax debts in cash under the Acceptance In Lieu scheme during the past 12 months.
Other gifts to the nation were sculptures by Barbara Hepworth and a painting by American artist Mark Rothko.
The works, which are managed by the Arts Council England, included 30 collections of art and cultural importance worth almost £50 million.
The council will put the items on public display at galleries and museums.
Lennon lyrics
The chance to hand over important works of art and culture to the nation to settle tax bills has run since 1910 and resulted in the public inheriting valuable collections that risked being sold overseas or broken up to raise money for the tax man.
The taxpayer is credited with the open market value of the gift as a cash deduction against the money they owe.
Lennon’s original handwritten lyrics to famous songs like My Life and Strawberry Fields Forever were donated by writer Hunter Davies, who was also the biographer to the Beatles, to settle a £120,000 tax debt.
The documents are now in the British Library.
Papers from Charles Darwin are housed at the Cambridge University Library. The collection includes letters and a prayer the evolution of the species scientist wrote while studying at Edinburgh University.
A portrait of poet John Ruskin by John Everett Millais is going to the Ashmolean, Oxford.
Degas bronzes
Other important art works by impressionists Corot and Degas were handed to the tax man by the estate of British painter Lucian Freud.
Corot’s L’ Italienne ou La Femme a la Manche Jaune has been in a private collection for more than 60 years. It’s now at the National Gallery.
A bronze of a galloping horse by Degas, one of several donated by Freud’s estate, is at the National Museum Cardiff.
Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said: “The Acceptance in Lieu Scheme has provided a financial solution for taxpayers and a benefit to the public for more than a century
“Not only does the owner or their estate gain a discount on their tax bill, a museum or gallery gains an important new acquisition for their collection, and the public get a chance to see the work for free, often for the first time in many years.”
