Chantrey Bequest

In the nineteenth century, the portrait sculptor and painter Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841) left his fortune of £105,000 (worth in excess of £95 million in 2013) to the Royal Academy for the purchase of 'works of Fine Art ... executed in Great Britain' with the stipulation that the collection should be known as the Chantrey Bequest. It was hoped the collection would eventually be housed in its own gallery, but sadly that has never materialised and although the Trustees of the RA still decide on the selection of the purchases, the exhibition and preservation of the collection has become the responsibility of the Tate Gallery.