Met Painting Donor Liable for Overstating Charitable Deduction

A centuries-old Chinese painting donated to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was worth less than half what its donor reported when claiming a tax deduction for charitable giving, the US Tax Court said Wednesday.

A limited partnership owned by Oscar Tang, a prominent Chinese-born American investor and philanthropist, is liable for a penalty after reporting that its 2010 donation of Palace Banquet substantiated a $26 million charitable contribution deduction. The work—a 750-year-old, roughly 10-foot painting depicting an ornate palace—was worth only about $12 million upon its donation to the Met by WT Art Partnership LP, Judge Albert G. Lauber ...