According to the BBC, a total of 89 items have been allocated to the National Museums of Liverpool but will remain on display at Castle Howard, which garnered international fame as the setting for the 1981 television series Brideshead Revisited.
They have been acquired through the government’s ‘acceptance in lieu scheme’, which allows inheritance tax bills to be paid by transferring important works of art and cultural objects to the nation.
Among the lot are 62 Roman antiques, including sculptures and figures of God collected by Henry Howard, the fourth Earl of Carlisle.
It is not the first time the estate has had to use its artefacts for survival, after selling Roman antiques and Baroque painting in 2015 to secure its “long term future”.
A collection of importance
Arts Council England said the Castle Howard collection was a “highly important group of Roman sculpture” and an “excellent example” of the collecting practices of British aristocrats of that time.
Edward Harley, chairman of the Acceptance in Lieu panel, said: “The collection has great art-historical and archaeological importance and its continued display at Castle Howard ensures that it will also be able to tell the story of two great eighteenth century collectors.”
