Government Art Collection

The United Kingdom's Government Art Collection (GAC) places works of art in major Government buildings in the UK and around the world to promote British art, culture and history.

Works are displayed in several hundred locations, including Downing Street, ministerial offices and reception areas in Whitehall, regional government offices in the UK, and diplomatic posts in locations as diverse as Paris, Buenos Aires, Washington DC and Beijing.

Dating from 1898, the GAC now holds approximately 14,000 works of art by British artists in a variety of media including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, textiles and video works, from the sixteenth century to the present day.

Artists represented in the collection include John Constable, William Hogarth, Lucian Freud, Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth, Michael Landy, Bridget Riley, Emma Kay and Zarina Bhimji amongst many other well known artists.

The majority of the Collection is on display in Government buildings, with a small proportion at its premises in central London for conservation or awaiting re-display.

Wherever possible, the GAC lends works of art to exhibitions in public museums and galleries throughout the UK and abroad.

The GAC also collaborates with other departments, such as the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in commissioning works of art.

At the Home Office building in central London, the GAC commissioned a programme of public art by seven contemporary artists, and new commissions for its interior spaces. In 2005, new works of art were commissioned for the Deputy High Commissioner's offices in Chennai (formerly Madras); and for the European Commission Office at Brussels. Commissions were completed in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport between 2006 and 2007 and at the Ministry of Justice (previously Department for Constitutional Affairs) in 2009 and in London.

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