As it celebrates its twentieth anniversary, the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) today receives a welcome boost as its Trustees pledge an additional £1.5million for the nation’s ‘fund of last resort’.

From April 2000 NHMF, established in 1980 as a memorial to those who died in the two world wars, will have up to £5million to allocate to items of outstanding heritage importance - an increase of £2.5million on last year.

The significance of the Memorial Fund as a ‘fund of last resort’ is illustrated by two grants announced today, £55,000 towards the acquisition of two Late Bronze Age Neckrings and £91,700 to purchase Seurat’s Bateau près de la berge à Asnières.

The two Late Bronze Age Neckrings have been acquired by the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for the Dorset County Museum.  They were discovered near the coast in South Dorset and have been identified as fitting into the Late Bronze Age tradition of solid bar torques dating from 1000-800 BC.  The neckrings are of a type rarely found in Britain and there are only a handful of examples across Western Europe.  They will be displayed at Dorset County Museum, which has the largest collection of archaeological material in the county.

Seurat’s Bateau près de la berge à Asnières (1883) has been acquired through Private Treaty Sale for the Courtauld Institute of Art, part of the University of London.  This significant oil sketch, which has rarely been on public display, led directly to the creation of Seurat’s first major masterpiece Bathers at Asnières in 1884.

Both acquisitions have been made possible with additional funding from the National Art Collections Fund and the Victoria and Albert/Museums and Galleries Commission Purchase Grant Fund.

Following the cut in NHMF’s grant in aid to £2million in 1998, Trustees have reluctantly had to apply very restrictive priorities for the Memorial Fund, providing funds only for the acquisition of items of national heritage importance which have a memorial character and are at risk of destruction, adverse development or loss.  Lower priority had to be given to items that only face the risk of loss by export: in the past an important part of the Fund’s ‘last resort’ activities.  This more restrictive stance has resulted in fewer applications to the Fund.

Now, in order to achieve more for our national heritage and increase the flow of applications, Trustees have exceptionally decided to release an additional £1.5m in 2000/2001 from the Fund’s endowment, thereby making up to £5m available for grants this year.

This anticipates the additional funds expected in the future (the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has promised an increase to £5m grant in aid for 2001/2002) and should enable the Fund to operate at the minimum amount Trustees believe necessary to maintain a defence of the most outstanding parts of the national heritage which are at risk.  This has enabled Trustees to relax their current priorities, with equal priority once again given for items at risk of loss by export. 

Robert Dufton, Head of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, commented “Over twenty years NHMF has safeguarded a wide range of national treasures, from the Mappa Mundi to Orford Ness, which would otherwise have been lost.  This increase in funds will ensure that NHMF continues to act as a fund of last resort for the future protection of our nation’s heritage.”

Notes to Editors

The National Heritage Memorial Fund was established by Parliament in 1980 to be a central bulwark in the United Kingdom’s defences for the most outstanding parts of our national heritage.  The Fund was intended as a memorial to those who have given their lives for the United Kingdom.  The Fund is empowered by the National Heritage Act 1980, to give financial assistance towards the cost of acquiring, maintaining or preserving land, buildings, works of art and other objects of outstanding interest which are also of importance to the national heritage.

Some 1200 items of national importance have benefited from £200million through the National Heritage Memorial Fund in its twenty-year history.  These include: the acquisition of the 12th-century Becket Chasse, depicting the scene of the martyrdom of St Thomas a Becket for the Victoria and Albert Museum (£3.65m in 1996); the acquisition of Chastleton House, Oxfordshire by the National Trust in 1991, now carefully restored and open to the public and £961,000 to acquire HMS Cavalier, the last surviving destroyer to have seen active service during World War II (1998).

Further information

Lydia Davies, Jon Williams or Katie Owen
Phone: 0171 591 6032

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society: Sandra Cain,
Phone: 01305 262 735

Courtauld Institute of Art: Susan Blake,
Phone: 0171 848 2538