29th November 2007

Sale of Dumfires House completed as new chief executive appointed

Ownership of Dumfries House and its contents passed to The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust yesterday. The House is expected to open to the public next Summer.

His Royal Highness The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay led a consortium of organizations and individuals this summer in a successful bid to rescue Dumfries House for the nation in what was described as the “save of the century”. The organizations involved include The Prince’s Charities Foundation, the Scottish Government, The Art Fund, the Garfield Weston Foundation, The Monument Trust, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and SAVE Britain’s Heritage. The Art Fund acted as the formal legal purchaser of the house and its heritage contents and has passed them to the newly formed independent charity, The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust.

Michael Schafer, currently Property Manager of Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, has been appointed Chief Executive of the new Trust which has been established to preserve and maintain Dumfries House and its magnificent furniture and open it to the public. The Great Steward of Scotland is one of The Prince of Wales’s Scottish titles.

Michael Schafer said:

“Dumfries House is one of Scotland’s hidden treasures and I am delighted, thanks to The Duke of Rothesay, to be opening its doors to a wider audience.”

The Trust has today also confirmed the appointment of its Board of Trustees, chaired by Sir Michael Peat, The Prince’s Principal Private Secretary.

The Prince’s Charities Foundation has also acquired land adjoining the nearby town of Cumnock for development. It is hoped that the opening of the house to the public, and the development of this related land, will together act as powerful agents of regeneration for the immediate area and beyond. There will be an extensive public consultation process on the development early next year led by The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment.

Dumfries House, in East Ayrshire, was designed by the Adam brothers and is internationally renowned for its unique collection of furniture originally bought for the house and made by Thomas Chippendale and the contemporary Edinburgh furniture makers William Mathie, Alexander Peter and Francis Brodie. This Scottish group has no comparison anywhere in the world.

The Prince’s Charities Foundation has borrowed a considerable proportion of the £45m total cost of the project. It is intended that the redevelopment of the land will help repay the loan as well as make an important contribution to the regeneration of the area.

Notes for editors

1. The Trustees of The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust are:
Sir Michael Peat (Chairman) – Principal Private Secretary to TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall
The Marquess of Bute – Former owner of Dumfries House
Mark Gibson – Chartered surveyor
Stewart Grimshaw – Trustee of the Monument Trust
Sir Angus Grossart – Chairman and executive director of Noble Grossart; Chairman of the National Museums of Scotland; former Chairman of National Galleries of Scotland, and former Trustee of the National Heritage Memorial Fund
James Knox - Managing Director of The Art Newspaper; trustee of National Galleries of Scotland
Fiona Lees – Chief Executive of East Ayrshire Council
Sir Hugh Roberts - Director of the Royal Collection and Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art
David Verey – Chairman of the Art Fund, Chairman of the Tate Gallery
Percy Weatherall – ex-Managing Director of Jardine Matheson Holdings in Hong Kong and ex-Board member of Hong Kong Land
Dr Manon Williams – Deputy Private Secretary to TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall with responsibility for His Royal Highness’s interests in Heritage and the Built Environment
David Windmill – The Chief Executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the operators of Edinburgh Zoo

2. Dumfries House is one of the most architecturally significant houses in the UK. It was built between 1754 and 1759 by the Adam brothers, with furniture made specifically for the house by Thomas Chippendale and the contemporary Edinburgh furniture makers William Mathie, Alexander Peter and Francis Brodie.

3. Breakdown of contributions from individual bodies:
The Monument Trust - £9m
The National Heritage Memorial Fund - £7m
The Scottish Government, acting through Historic Scotland - £5m
The Art Fund - £2.25m
The Garfield Weston Foundation - £1.113m
Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement - £250,000
The Dunard Fund - £125,000
The Prince’s Charities Foundation - £20 million

4. SAVE Britain’s Heritage worked on the initial phase of this scheme. The first tranche of the funding came from The Art Fund, together with the Monument Trust and the Garfield Weston Foundation. After The Prince of Wales’s intervention, funding was secured from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Dunard Fund, the Scottish Government and The Prince’s Charities Foundation.

5. The Art Fund is the UK’s leading independent art charity. It offers grants to help UK museums and galleries enrich their collections and campaigns widely on behalf of museums and their visitors. It is entirely funded from public donations and has 80,000 members. It was at the forefront of the campaign for free admission in 2001 and led the public appeal to secure JMW Turner’s The Blue Rigi for Tate Britain in January 2007. Click here to visit the website.

6. As a ‘Schedule 3’ body the Art Fund was able to purchase the House in a “private treaty sale” which reduces the price to the buyers because the Inland Revenue writes off capital gains tax when the purchaser is a heritage body. Schedule 3 bodies are those approved by the Treasury under the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 to be given tax remission on acquisitions to incentivise owners to sell to public institutions.

7. The Garfield Weston Foundation is a general grant making trust established in 1958 by the late W Garfield Weston and members of his family. It supports a wide range of charitable activity throughout the United Kingdom.

8. Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government and is directly accountable to Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament. The agency is charged with safeguarding the nation’s historic environment through statutory protection, research and investment. Since the agency was created in 1991 it has issued over £170 million for the care and maintenance of the historic environment and this has generated well over £400 million in match funding. Click here to visit the website.

9. The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) is the ‘fund of last resort’ for the nation’s heritage, coming to the rescue by funding emergency acquisitions in memory of those who gave their lives for this country. NHMF currently receives an annual income of £10million from the Government. Click here to visit the website.

10. The Monument Trust is a charitable trust established in 1965 by the late Simon Sainsbury. It has a special interest in helping keep alive the artistic and cultural heritage of the UK

Contact the Clarence House press office for further information. Click here to visit the Press Office contacts page.