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Title 20, EducationRelease 119-110

§75 Authority and Functions of the Board

Title 20 › CHAPTER 3 — SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, NATIONAL MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES › SUBCHAPTER II — NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART › § 75

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The board may create an official seal and make the bylaws, rules, and procedures it needs to run the Gallery, including rules about buying, showing, and loaning art, managing trust funds, and how the board is organized. The board can act even if some seats are empty, and three members make a quorum for doing business. Only artworks that match the high quality of the pieces the donor gave may be added to the permanent collection. The board has the usual trustee powers over trust funds and artworks it controls. Each year the board must send the Smithsonian Institution a report listing all acquisitions and loans and all public and private money received and spent.

Full Legal Text

Title 20, §75

Education, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Official seal; bylaws, rules, and regulations; quorum
The board is authorized to adopt an official seal which shall be judicially noticed and to make such bylaws, rules, and regulations, as it deems necessary for the administration of its functions under this subchapter, including, among other matters, bylaws, rules, and regulations relating to the acquisition, exhibition, and loan of works of art, the administration of its trust funds, and the organization and procedure of the board. The board may function notwithstanding vacancies, and three members of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
(b)Quality of works of art
In order that the collection of the National Gallery of Art shall always be maintained at a high standard and in order to prevent the introduction therein of inferior works of art, no work of art shall be included in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art unless it be of similar high standard of quality to those in the collection acquired from the donor.
(c)Powers and obligations
The board shall have all the usual powers and obligations of a trustee in respect of all trust funds administered by it and all works of art acquired by it.
(d)Annual reports
The board shall submit to the Smithsonian Institution an annual report of its operations under this subchapter, including a detailed statement of all acquisitions and loans of works of art and of all public and private moneys received and disbursed.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

20 U.S.C. § 75

Title 20, Education

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110