Museums Denied Access To Private Donations By Treasury

The British Museum and the National Gallery are finding it difficult to access over £50m given by private donors because of changes to Treasury regulations implemented under the last government. The scale of the problem is widespread, as the reserves for all national museums total over £285m. The museums have not openly admitted that a problem exists fearing repercussions from a Treasury who has already cut their budgets by up to 30%. It has been agreed that national museums can have access to half their reserves, amounting to  £143m. Although in theory museums should now have access to half their £285m of reserves, DCMS has not yet told them how the new system will actually work.  Read More......