A Glorious Year for Museums . . . : Art: Thanks to a change in federal income tax laws, more collectors are donating works to institutions nationwide.

It’s been Christmas all year at American art museums. While the recession has nipped away at acquisitions budgets--in some cases, gobbling them up entirely and taking a big bite out of operating funds--museums have been blessed with a feast of donated artworks.

Comparing the estimated value of art gifts received so far this year with 1990’s gifts, museum directors report that percentages are way up: 400% at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 500% at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, 1,000% at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, 6,000% at the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio.

“It just shows what tax incentives can do,” said David Steadman, director of the Toledo Museum of Art.

Indeed, the bonanza is largely due to a one-year provision--recently extended for six months--allowing donors to deduct the full market value of gifts from their federal income tax. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 wiped out deductions of appreciated value for most high-income donors by requiring them to count appreciated value of gifts in calculating the alternative minimum tax. The change effectively reduced gifts of artworks by at least 50% at most museums.

This year’s window of opportunity is limited to objects that are directly related to qualified institutions’ activities. Donors may deduct the appreciated value of paintings given to art museums, for example, but they may only deduct the purchase price of objects meant for resale, or donated securities.

President Bush on Dec. 11 signed into law a six-month extension of the provision, allowing Congress to consider a permanent change as part of a new tax package. During hearings, scheduled for Jan. 28 and 29, representatives of nonprofit institutions hope to persuade Congress to not only open the window permanently but also to reinstate full market-value deductions for gifts of all kinds of appreciated property.

For now, however, museum directors are thrilled with the temporary opportunity to build their collections.

“I haven’t been able to do this for a long time,” said Earl A. Powell, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, flipping through a thick sheaf of papers listing 1,387 gifts accepted so far this year by the board of trustees. The museum’s final board meeting is expected to place a stamp of approval on dozens of other gifts, bringing the total value to about $30 million--up from about $7.5 million last year.

Long before the final rush of paperwork to process 1991 gifts, the museum had received “Triptych of the Madonna and Child With Saints,” a 15th-Century Italian painting by Neri di Bicci, as a gift of board member Hans Kohn and his wife, Varya. An anonymous donor presented LACMA with a major painting by Abstract Expressionist Clyfford Still; R. Stanton Avery donated “A Philosopher,” a portrait by 17th-Century Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera, and actor Steve Martin donated Neil Jenney’s “Acid Story,” a contemporary painting which has been on loan to the museum.

Some donors who promised artworks last year in honor of the museum’s 25th anniversary turned their promises into real gifts this year, Powell said. But other donations were quite unexpected, and they rolled in all year: 114 in May, 358 in July, 299 in October. While a gift of 350 netsuke from Raymond and Frances Bushell inflated the total number of donated items, this year’s list includes many more high-priced pieces than last year.

Other California museums have equally good news to share. Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art issued a press release last month celebrating a bumper crop of gifts, including works by John Altoon, John Baldessari, Karl Benjamin, Robert Longo, Colleen Sterritt and Terry Winters. Last week, the museum announced an anonymous gift of Andy Warhol’s “Telephone” painting and expanded its list to include a stunning array of gifts from board members.

Bob and Laura Lee Woods donated “The Matinee Idol,” a 1962 painting by Robert Irwin. In addition, the couple made partial gifts of works by Malcolm Morley, Richard Artschwager, Josef Albers, Ross Bleckner, John McLaughlin, Morris Louis, Billy Al Bengston and Kenneth Price. Longtime museum supporters who requested anonymity presented MOCA with partial gifts of Richard Diebenkorn’s “Ocean Park No. 131,” Kenneth Noland’s “Untitled (Target)” and Robert Therrien’s “Untitled (Gold Keystone) No. 74.” (Partial gifts are generally donated over a period of several years, with the museum receiving additional percentages of the artwork until it has full ownership.)

One of MOCA’s most prized new possessions is Frederick and Joan Nicholas’ gift of Ad Reinhardt’s 1947 black and white abstraction, “Number 16,” which is on display in the artist’s retrospective. The Reinhardt is the first work by the highly esteemed artist in MOCA’s collection, as is a 6-foot cigar sculpture by Robert Gober, purchased by the museum’s collectors’ committee, MOCA Director Richard Koshalek said.

“Holdin’ the Dog,” a 1983-84 sculpture by Ed and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, came to the museum from Mandy and Cliff Einstein. Ed Ruscha’s 1986 painting, “Faster Than a Speeding Beanstalk,” joined MOCA’s collection, courtesy of Marc and Jane Nathanson.

“It’s been a spectacular year,” MOCA’s associate director Sherri Geldin said. Gifts are expected to total about 120 (including about 270 pieces) at an estimated value of $10 million--a whopping increase from last year’s total of 18 art gifts valued at about $2 million, she said.

Museums of all sizes and descriptions apparently have benefited from the tax window. At the J. Paul Getty Museum--which is better known for its buying power than for having its hand out--gifts only grew from 5 to 16, but one of the 16 is rock musician Graham Nash’s recent donation of 280 camera lucida drawings by Sir John F.W. Herschel. The Huntington Library, Art Galleries and Botanical Gardens also has experienced an upsurge in generosity, evidenced by gifts of artworks, furniture and rare books.

In Orange County, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art is basking in the glow of unaccustomed riches. A $1.2-million gift of the collection of Roy and Bentley Dillard--including more than 400 pre-Columbian and Aymara textiles and metal objects--is the largest single donation in the museum’s 59-year history. The museum also has received a group of Amazonian tribal field studies and ethnographic objects from Michael Merrifield, a professor of anthropology at Saddleback College.

With about $3 million worth of donations--including ancient Asian art and California Impressionist paintings--Bowers curator Armand Labbe said the value of 1991 gifts has increased tenfold over last year and quality has improved as well.

Like many other institutions, the Laguna Art Museum has tightened its belt to the point of pain this year, but the museum expects to receive about 150 gifts--more than tripling last year’s total of 47 artworks. Collectors Dennis Hudson and Nancy Noble donated a group of John Paul Jones’ sculptures, prints and drawings. Other contributions include a major watercolor by Paul DeLongpre; a Peter Krasnow sculpture; a cast acrylic resin painting by Helen Pashgian, two paintings by Tony DeLap and a sand, argon and plate glass installation by Laddie John Dill.

The Newport Harbor Art Museum hit bottom last year when it received only four gifts, but this year 44 gifts by such artists as John Paul Jones, Louisa Chase and Joe Goode have already been received.

In San Diego, the Museum of Photography’s director Arthur Ollman reports a record year for gifts. About $175,000 worth of donations include two rare examples of the work of Paul Strand and a 1911 print by Lewis Hine, presented by photographer Walter Rosenblum and photography historian Naomi Rosenblum. Other donors have given 12 works by Brett Weston, “Yosemite View” by Carlton Watkins and Irving Penn’s portrait of painter John Marin.

Having received 50 or so significant donations at the San Diego Museum of Art in La Jolla, Director Hugh Davies is overjoyed with the most valuable gift, “Sinjerli I,” a 1967 “protractor” painting by Frank Stella. “In every way, it’s a banner year,” Davies said. “In terms of the quality and number of gifts, it’s the best since I’ve been here, and I’m now in my ninth year.”

At the San Diego Museum of Art, where gifts are up 700%, donors have contributed works by a broad range of American and European artists including Milton Avery, Edgar Degas, George Grosz, Emil Nolde and Guy Dill.

“I think a lot of donors were just waiting to get a fair shake,” said John Lane, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “People are motivated to give, but they want recognition of the appreciated value of their gifts.” Donations to the San Francisco museum had been largely restricted to bequests from estates, Lane said, but this year produced a surge of gifts including a painting from Richard Diebenkorn’s acclaimed “Ocean Park” series.

The story is much the same across the country. A press release from the Chicago Art Institute reports “one of the most important acquisition years in the museum’s history”--which appears to be a modest account of a year that brought the museum 77 Dada and Surrealist works from the Lindy and Edwin Bergman collection, 21 Chinese burial sculptures from Robert B. Mayer and the Julian Goldsmith collection of 68 pre-Columbian objects from Mexico, among many other gifts.

“Our phone started ringing on Jan. 1. We received our first gift in the first week of the year,” said James D. Burke, director of the St. Louis Art Museum. The museum sent letters reminding friends that “the good old days are back,” he said. Among the results: a rare, mint-condition Toulouse-Lautrec print from a couple of 20-year members who had not previously donated art, a Chinese art collection from 30-year members who hadn’t given before and two Japanese cloisonne works that were exhibited in the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, $28.4 million worth of gifts from 187 donors have been accepted so far this year, compared with $5.3 million worth from 105 donors in the same period last year, according to Ashton Hawkins, executive vice president and counsel to the trustees.

“People have been frustrated by constraints against giving. This (tax window) removes the sting,” said Kirk Varnedoe, director of the painting and sculpture department at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Gifts of paintings and sculptures have increased about 400% this year, largely thanks to the example set by board members and longtime patrons such as Agnes Gund and David Rockefeller, he said.

Architect Philip Johnson gave MOMA “Orange Car Crash 14 Times,” a two-panel painting by Andy Warhol. Ronald Lauder donated paintings by German artists Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. Artist Philip Guston’s estate gave the museum four pieces to fill in blanks in its collection: “North” (1962), “City Limits” (1969), “Shadow and Box” (mid ‘70s) and “East Coker (T.S.E.)” (a 1979 surrogate self-portrait, ostensibly depicting poet T.S. Eliot).

“It’s been a very good year for gifts,” Varnedoe said. But the timing could have been better, he noted.

“The window of opportunity for tax deductions coincided with an unfortunate downturn in the economy. A lot of people don’t need deductions this year. They have plenty of losses,” Varnedoe said. The temporary change in the tax law also came at a low point in the art market, when appraised values dropped, reducing deductions that would have been possible if the window had opened a few years ago, he said.

Despite such sobering facts, donors have appeared in numbers that are only rivaled by the final rush for deductions before the 1986 Tax Reform Act went into effect. The bonanza is partly due to efforts of museum directors, curators and trustees who are eager to make the most of a fleeting opportunity and to prove that public institutions have been badly hurt by the law.

Most museum directors sent letters to members advising them of the tax advantages in donating art this year. In addition, many institutions composed wish lists, targeting potential donors and asking for specific works.

Several museums that were planning to solicit gifts for anniversary celebrations used the tax windows to boost their campaigns or get them off to an early start. The most visible example was the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. The gallery brought in 1,514 gifts in the first three quarters of 1991--a dramatic increase from the 295 received in 1990.

The tax window coincided fortuitously with the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 75th anniversary, leading to “a wave of generosity,” Director Evan H. Turner said. Cambodian 10th-Century bronzes, 17th- and 18th-Century Indian miniatures and rare Old Master prints are among the diverse range of gifts, he said.

The Denver Art Museum, which was gearing up for its centennial in 1993, also started its gift campaign early. The museum sent out press releases and newsletters, made requests for specific gifts and organized a panel discussion with tax advisers, appraisers, collectors and a representative from the Internal Revenue Service. The result: 437 objects valued at more than $3 million--a significant leap from the 240 objects valued at $500,000 received in 1990.

If the six-month extension of the tax benefit is not made permanent, there will probably be another surge of gifts in June. If, on the other hand, the window stays open permanently, museum directors will return to the days when gifts poured in at the end of each year.

As to the likelihood that Congress will reinstate market-value deductability of appreciated property, speculation is rampant. “One hears favorable comments, but one wonders if those comments are from those who will benefit,” Turner said.

“We have quite a broad understanding that the one-year window has had a dramatic effect on gifts of art. . . . We can demonstrate that with the figures when this comes up for discussion,” Hawkins said. “This isn’t considered an elitist benefit any more. The problem is to find the money, and that may be another matter.”

Whether the window remains open or slams shut, Varnedoe said, he hopes this year has given birth to a change in attitude. “A new breed of collector is emerging now that speculation is over. There’s a new seriousness among people who are learning a way of collecting that involves public-spirited giving.”