Independent charity The Art Fund has revealed that the leading art museums in the UK spend less on buying new works of art for their collections than their counterparts abroad.

The top acquisition spenders in 2004–05 comprised the Metropolitan Museum of Art (£53.4m) and the Museum of Modern Art (£20m) in New York, the Louvre (£16.8m) in Paris and The Getty (£10.m) in California.

In comparison, the top four UK spenders – all based in London – comprise the National Gallery (£6.3m), the Tate (£4.8m), the V&A (£1.3m) and the British Museum, which invested a mere £761,000 on new works of art last year.

Art Fund director David Barrie said: “Public spending on collections is in steep decline, while incentives to encourage private giving are insufficient.” Details: www.artfund.org.uk