LONDON—The Tate has come under fire for acquiring and showing works by its own trustees. An audit of the Tate's collection, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that the gallery acquired 73 works between 1955 and 2005 from 20 serving trustees, including some of Britain's top artists, who received financial benefit from the institution's acquisitions, the Telegraph reports.

The papers also revealed that some of those trustees were present at meetings that approved the acquisitions and that a number of the transactions were made on the personal recommendation of Sir Nicholas Serota, the gallery's director. The acquisitions may breach charity law regarding the management of conflict of interest.

The Tate bought works from 10 trustees, including Anthony Caro, Howard Hodgkin, Henry Moore, Ceri Richards, Edward Bawden, Roland Penrose, William Coldstream, Phillip King, Adrian Stokes, and John Piper and received works as gifts from 10 other trustees, including Peter Doig, Michael Craig-Martin, Christopher Le Brun, Richard Deacon, Bill Woodrow, and Julian Opie.

It was revealed in 2006 that the Tate had breached charity law when it bought works over eight years by five artists who were serving as trustees. The gallery promised to create procedures so that the mistake would not be repeated; however, the audit obtained by the Telegraph shows that the gallery did not report the acquisitions of an additional 73 pieces.

A spokesman for the Tate said, "Tate volunteered the list [of works acquired since 1955], and the commission has reviewed it. They have recently confirmed that in their view, all works were acquired in the beneficial interest of the charity."