Vol. 441 No. 1
36 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht if he will give details of the Shaw and other private financial bequests to the National Gallery in each of the last ten years; the ways in which each of these funds were used to expand the collection at the National Gallery.
I understand from the National Gallery of Ireland that the only private financial bequest available to it is the Shaw Fund which was established in 1950 on the death of George Bernard Shaw. Shaw bequeated one third of the residuary income of his estate to the National Gallery of Ireland and appointed the British Public Trustee as his sole executor. The receipts from the Shaw bequest are shown on a table which I will have circulated to the House in the Official Report.
The Shaw Fund is available for any purpose which, at their discretion, the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland see fit as appropriate to advancing the gallery's mission. From the late 1950s, the board decided to use the Shaw Fund principally for the purchase of pictures for the national collections. Many important master paintings have entered the collection as a result and in the ten year period since 1983 the gallery purchased works by, among others, Camille Pissarro. US$280,000, Emil Nolde, stg£356,000, Chaim Soutine, IR£87,000, and Thomas Roberts, IR£40,000.
Receipts from the Shaw Bequest 1983 to 1993
The receipts from the Shaw Fund in the past ten years are as follows:
|
Year Ending |
Receipts |
|
£ |
|
|
31/03/83 |
127,458 |
|
31/03/84 |
145,624 |
|
31/03/85 |
139,628 |
|
31/03/86 |
146,371 |
|
31/03/87 |
176,232 |
|
31/03/88 |
162,284 |
|
31/03/89 |
147,407 |
|
31/03/90 |
164,714 |
|
31/03/91 |
176,717 |
|
31/03/92 |
152,722 |
|
31/03/93 |
173,928 |
|
£1,713,085 |
