Donation to Vancouver Museum Costs Taxpayers Big Money

According a story written by columnist David Baines in the Vancouver Sun, two multi-million dollar donations of miniature "Michelangelo" statues to the Vancouver Museum turned out to be grossly overvalued. Apparently, the first group of statues originally valued at many millions of dollars ten years ago, was estimated recently by Sotheby's to bring from $200,000 to $300,000 at auction. It is reasonable to assume that the second group donated a few years later will get the same result. No information was given about the investors who bought the statues and donated them to the museum or about the appraisers. What the Vancouver Sun says is know is that the Vancouver Museum issued a total of 31.4 million dollars in tax receipts for non-cash donations in 1998 and 2006. The Vancouver sun says that 30 million dollars of the tax receipts was for the statues. If you are a taxpayer you should have felt a cool breeze as 13 to 14 million tax dollars flew out the window of the federal coffers - ouch.

When the donors of the statues are described as 'investors' we cannot help but think that it was a money-making scheme. This is pure speculation but I suspect (but don't know) that the tax refunds received by the 'investors' significantly exceeded the sum of the purchase price paid for the statues, the fees or commissions paid to the people who put the deal together and the appraisal fees. It is too late for the Canada Revenue Agency to challenge the tax refunds that resulted from the donation receipts. The Ministry of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency has obviously got some work to do to to protect our hard earned tax dollars from this kind of leakage. Clink on this link to read Mr. Baines' entire article.