Government Art Collection

The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in the UK and around the world, and to promote British art, culture and history. The GAC now holds over 14,000 works of art in a variety of media, including around 2,500 oil paintings, but also sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, textiles and video works, mainly created by British artists or artist with a strong connection to the UK, from the sixteenth century to the present day. Works are displayed in several hundred locations, including. History The GAC dates its establishment to 5 December 1899, when the 2nd Viscount Esher , Permanent Secretary to the Office of Works , wrote to Sir Francis Mowatt , Permanent Secretary to the Treasury , proposing to spend £150 to acquire five painting for the Foreign Office , arguing that the expenditure would save a greater amount of money that would otherwise be spent on decorations. Up to the late 19th century, government ministers and ambassadors could decorate their rooms with their own personal art collections, but the GAC became more important as the. Collection The collection includes works by many well-known British artists of the 17th and 18th centuries, including works by or after Peter Lely , Godfrey Kneller , James Thornhill , William Hogarth and John Constable , Victorian artists such as William Powell Frith , Lucien Pissarro and James Sant , 20th century artists such as John Nash and Paul Nash , Laura Knight , L.S. Lowry , Barbara Hepworth , Bridget Riley , Lucian Freud , Peter Blake , Eduardo Paolozzi , David Hockney and Elisabeth Frink , and more contemporary artists such as Emma.