Donations as we all know, are more than desirable and difficult to obtain by public museums, above all if that which is desired are objets d’art, and what’s more, contemporary objets d’art. Museums are making more efforts to follow artistic trends, yet they manage with difficulty to keep in step with the times. On the other hand, a host of dangerous collectors move around the art circuit acquiring works by contemporary artists and by young emerging artists. They do it for passion, and for the pleasure of valuing their intuition.

It would be splendid if these two different categories of market leaders managed to find a match point and draw mutual benefits from their collaboration. Unfortunately however, this rarely occurs. Museums are not able to entice donations from collectors because they do not know (or often they cannot) how to value them correctly, or how to give them due credit. For this reason, collectors distance themselves from public institutions and at most they build their own museums, for which there is a lot to showcase. Or better still, they decide upon a foundation that will be constructed only when the collector passes away.

In England, the situation seems to be really critical; administrators have realised that the level of donations in the art sector on the part of their own citizens is less than that of Ireland, France and Singapore. The decision was therefore made to batten down the hatches and organise a “National Giving Day”.

The idea emerged after careful reflection; at the moment in fact donations often passed by almost unobserved. These acts were often proposed as provisions of a will but it is difficult for them to be accomplished in life. The problems regard not only the diverse media resonances but also the lack of advantages in fiscal terms. Actually, the incentives for the donations, especially for the donations of artworks, are of little importance.

“National Giving Day’s” intent is to represent the occasion to focus attention for one day on this matter and to give collectors the right relevance. Important donations could therefore show immediate effects. In fact people usually love to show that they can do something beautiful, but often the donors’ generosity is not recognised. Naturally, even everyday citizens can participate by donating minor amounts. The slogan of the show will be “Private Giving for the Public Good”.

Meanwhile, a campaign was launched intending to modify the law that regulates fiscal impositions, in order to encourage collectors to donate more to public museums, whether in monetary terms or that of artworks.

The hope is that of increasing donations by well-off citizens. Since 1992 profits increased by 25% and the level of welfare has more or less doubled but donations have fallen by a quarter. Some studies have concluded that 10% of high income earners could easily double his current level of donations, if incentives were given to fulfil such a choice.

The idea of a day dedicated to donations could however be positive. In Italy also, a similar thing was piloted with “Maratonarte” a televised marathon to collect funds which took place last October. The funds were destined for the restoration of seven sites. However, as of yet, a clear indication of intents of the donations to the public museums hasn’t yet been given, whether in monetary terms or that of works of art.

Italian fiscal politics have never particularly given incentives to donors, and institutions have also shown that they are not able to actively involve themselves with collectors. A certain air of change seems to have taken place however. Perhaps we can learn from looking at the English.