Where there pass on the death of a person dying after the commencement of this Act any objects to which this section applies, the value of those objects shall not be taken into account for the purpose of estimating the principal value of the estate passing on the death or the rate at which estate duty is chargeable thereon, and those objects shall, while enjoyed in kind, be exempt from death duties.

In the event of the sale of any objects to which this section applies, death duties shall, subject as hereinafter provided, become chargeable on the proceeds of sale in respect of the last death on which the objects passed and, as respects estate duty, at the rate appropriate to the principal value of the estate passing on that death upon which estate duty is leviable, and with which the objects would have been aggregated if they had not been objects to which this section applies, and the person by whom or for whose benefit the objects were sold shall be accountable for the duties and shall deliver an account for the purposes thereof within one month after the sale :

Provided that death duties shall not become chargeable as aforesaid if the sale is to the National Gallery, British Museum, or any other similar national institution, any university, county council or municipal corporation in Great Britain, or the National Art Collections Fund.

The objects to which this section applies are such pictures, prints, books, manuscripts, works of art, scientific collections or other things not yielding income as on a claim being made to the Treasury under this section appear to them to be of national, scientific, historic or artistic interest.

Nothing in this section shall affect the power of the Treasury under subsection (2) of section fifteen of the principal Act to remit death duties chargeable in respect of any objects to which that section applies.