Museums: A Gift Is Now a Gift

Giving art to museums used to be pure eat-your-cake-and-have-it. A collector could sign away his Rembrandt, Van Gogh or Gignoux (yes, who?) to his favorite museum, deduct its value from his income tax, and leave it right over his fireplace until his death. As of midnight June 30, the Indian giving is over,, thanks to the Internal Revenue Service.

The revenooers are shutting the life-interest loophole. In the future, no deduction may be taken until the art work is physically ceded to a museum or charitable institution. But most muse um directors are not alarmed by the new law, even though donations may be delayed for years. For the IRS has increased the incentive to give now, adding 10% to the former 20% deductible from gross income. At 30%, museums stand on an equal footing with hospitals and educational institutions in soliciting gifts. And some museum directors pondered whether they might still not rent back donated paintings to givers at $1 a year.

The Art Dealers Association of America, which is the country's unofficial evaluator of art-worthiness, reported that donors squeezing under the deadline had increased demands for appraisals tenfold. Just under the wire the Philadelphia Museum got a Picasso, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts three 18th century American portraits. Manhattan's Metropolitan received a score of donations, compared with none for this time last year. No one was telling what the last-minute nongifts were: they are still over the fireplaces.