Sir Anthony Van Dyck's Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew of 1638 proved to be one of the most satisfying and significant of acquisitions. In 2001 Tate had acquired its companion, Van Dyck's three-quarter-length portrait of Sir William Killigrew. When Lady Killigrew re-appeared at auction in early 2003 we seized the opportunity to purchase it. That the two works were conceived together is confirmed by the matching landscapes backgrounds. This remarkable pair of portraits is a step towards the fulfilment of Tate's ambition that Van Dyck, whose impact on British portrait painting is unrivalled, should be represented more fully in the national collection of British art.

Tate is always grateful for donations to the collection. In 2002 Professor Luke Herrmann presented, through the Art Fund, four works on paper from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These include a drawing by Thomas Hearne, an exceptionally fine Peter De Wint watercolour, a plein air cloud study by David Cox and a further drawing, long ascribed to Stubbs, now tentatively attributed to James Ward. The gains consistently derived from the acceptance of works of art in lieu of inheritance tax are exemplified in the allocation to Tate, at the wish of its owner, of a conversation piece by William Hogarth known as Three Ladies in a Grand Interior ('The Broken Fan'), possibly Catherine Darnley, Duchess of Buckingham with Two Ladies. Further additions to Tate's stewardship, from the same source, are seven large oils painted for Longleat in Wiltshire in 1733-6 by John Wootton, the leading sporting and landscape painter of the moment. The pictures were accepted by the Government in lieu of tax and allocated to Tate in 2003. All seven will remain in Longleat (five being in the Great Hall) where they epitomise the importance in English country house culture of sporting art, a significant genre with which Tate is closely associated. A distinguished precedent for such in situ acquisitions is found in the pre-eminent paintings by J.M.W. Turner in Petworth House transferred from the Treasury to Tate in 1984.

Acknowledgement should be made of Tate's continuing efforts to secure Sir Joshua Reynold's Portrait of Omai. Following the recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art in December 2002 that the work merited a star rating as a work of particular importance, the Minister of State agreed that a licence for its export should not be granted. Tate has actively pursued its acquisition since then.