Catalogue description Office of Works and successors: Government Art Collection: Registered Files

In 1898 the Office of Works was asked by the Treasury to oversee the welfare of works of art which happened to be found in government buildings, a responsibility which to this day remains one of the chief function of the Government Art Collection (GAC). The office's informal powers to purchase pictures for hanging in government buildings were formalised in 1907, when the office was authorised by the Treasury to spend up to £300 a year on purchasing or commissioning copies of portraits of historical or official interest to be used to decorate public buildings or offices. This was supplemented in 1935 by an additional grant of £250 to extend this service to diplomatic buildings and residences abroad. During the Second World War both allowances lapsed, but in 1946, with the appointment of the first curator, the purchase scheme was revived.

Just before the Second World War, a committee was set up to advise the Minister of Works on the purchase and commissioning of works of art. In 1946 the Advisory Committee, which had become virtually moribund, was reconstituted and the purchase grant was increased. By 1952 the demand for works of art had grown, and Sir David Eccles, then Minister of Works, appealed for subscriptions to a fund set up for providing pictures for government buildings, which at the same time aimed at encouraging young British artists. Money was raised and spent over the next three years, largely to acquire contemporary works of art for the collection. It also acquired items through gift and purchase. Sir David also appealed to private collectors and the national galleries to lend works for display in embassies overseas.

By the 1990s the GAC owned about 15,000 works of art chiefly by British artists or of British interest. The collection includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs and tapestries; the balance between historical and twentieth century works is fairly even.

Responsibility for the collection passed from the Office of Works, through its successors, to the Office of Arts and Libraries in 1979. In 1992, following the formation of the Department of National Heritage, overall responsibility for the collection passed to the new body, although by then the Collection was managing its own administration.