In 1970, Christie's was the first auction house to recognise the importance of offering tax related advice to clients and their professional advisers on the increasingly complex tax and reporting regulations affecting assets and heritage property.

For nearly 50 years, the department has built up extensive and unrivalled experience, helping numerous Christie's clients with transactions that have resulted in over 10,000 chattels of pre-eminent national interest or associated with buildings of outstanding historical or public interest, being acquired by public museums, galleries or institutions, through a private treaty sale or in lieu of inheritance tax or other death duties.

The department also has considerable experience in advising on the deferral and mitigation of capital tax charges arising on death or otherwise on important chattels of pre-eminent quality and also on land and buildings of particular architectural, historic, scientific, scenic or amenity interest. The legislation in this area is both complex and shifting. Nevertheless, it remains possible to obtain valuable benefit through appropriate management and disposal of chattels and land.

For more information, please contact the Heritage and Taxation department.

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Estates, Appraisals & Valuations

Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A. (1732-1792)
Double portrait of Miss Maria Gideon (1767–1834),
later Lady Saye and Sele, and her brother
William Gideon (1775-1805), full-length in a
wooded landscape
Accepted in lieu of tax; permanently allocated
to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
The Death of the Virgin
Accepted in lieu of inheritance tax;
permanently allocated to the British Museum

Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. (1769-1830)
Double portrait of Lady Catherine Stewart (1775-1812),
first wife of Lord Charles Stewart, later
3rd Marchioness of Londonderry (1778-1854), with
her son Frederick, later 4th Marquess of
Londonderry (1805-1872), full-length, she
as St. Cecilia, by a miniature organ
Accepted in lieu of inheritance tax;
permanently allocated to the National
Trust for display at Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland
©Mark Asher Photography