The Art Collector and the Tax Collector

Abstract

Rising prices at auction houses and galleries for the past few years have dampened the acquisitive desires of some collectors, but notable works of art offered for sale to reap these financial rewards have proved irresistable to others. The motives of the American collectors enjoying the fruits of our era are as diverse as their collections, and the specter of the tax collector has appeared vivid to many as they perused the auction catalogues. Unquestionably, profit motives and favorable tax climates have and will continue to guide at least the manner in which collections have been acquired and maintained if not the actual contents of the collections. In a somewhat less conspicuous fashion the present golden era enjoyed by some collectors may parallel the pre-World War I era dominated by the grand style of Joseph Duveen and his gaudy art-buying clients.