As a patron of the arts, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has made Lorenzo the Magnificent look like a piker. The law, tolerantly enough, lets people give paintings to a museum, take current appraised value as a deduction from taxable income, then keep the paintings in their homes for life (TIME, Nov. 24). But many a giver wants to get an extra measure of tax advantage by inflating the value of the gift. The method is to get an "expert" to pin a false appraisal on the work; the Government has not often questioned the appraisals. In one case, a dealer...
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