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of funds to purchase [[underlined]]major[[underlined]] items for the collections. While many objects are received through donation and affordable items are purchased, our museums are increasingly unable to buy works of great importance which would add significantly to the quality and comprehensiveness of our collections. Such growth is essential if research and exhibition programs are to thrive.

For fiscal year 1978, the six museums in questions [[ [[underlined]]1/[[underlined]] ]]
have only about $1,200,000 budgeted from all sources of funds -- primarily from Federal funds ($800,000), from Freer endowment income ($200,000), and from smaller amounts available from gifts, bequests, and special purpose funds. In today's market, the $200,000 to $300,000 available to each of these museums annually is inadequate and can only go toward purchase of less expensive objects. Our purchase funds pale in comparison to those available to comparable museums in this country and abroad. While the Congress has been generally supportive in recent years of requests for acquisition funds, the small annual increases have not even kept pace with inflation and there is little expectation that these appropriations will grow large enough ever to allow the purchase of major works.

It is recommended, therefore, that a new trust fund program, limited to the acquisition of major works, be established at the level of $1,000,000 in fiscal year of 1978. To allow proper planning in the
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[[underlined]]1/[[underlined]] Excluding the National Air and Space Museum which does not purchase objects and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum which is not emphasizing acquisitions in its formative period.