Patrick Leahy: “I rise today again with Senator Bennett to introduce the ``Artist-Museum Partnership Act.'' This bipartisan legislation…”

“I rise today again with Senator Bennett to introduce the ``Artist-Museum Partnership Act.'' This bipartisan legislation will enable our country to keep cherished art works in the United States and to preserve them in our public institutions, while erasing an inequity in our tax code that currently serves as a disincentive for artists to donate their works to museums and libraries. This is the same bill we introduced the past three Congresses. It was also included in the Senate-passed version of the President's 2001 tax cut bill, and in the Senate-passed version of the 2003 Charity Aid, Recovery, and Empowerment, CARE, Act. Our bill is sensible and straightforward. It would allow artists, writers, and composers who donate works to museums and libraries to take a tax deduction equal to the fair market value of the work. Under current law, artists who donate self-created works are only able to deduct the cost of supplies such as canvas, pen, paper and ink, which does not even come close to their true value. This is unfair to artists and it hurts museums and libraries--large and small-- that are dedicated to preserving works for posterity.”