THE government was urged last night to give a direct grant to save Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks for the National Gallery, and to provide an extra '30m a year to stop the loss to Britain of significant works of art.

Sir John Guinness, chairman of the culture ministry's reviewing committee on the exports of works of art, said this was "a fleabite" compared with the spending wasted by successive governments on aborted or ill-advised projects.

He said the system was failing because museums could not raise the money in most cases when the asking price exceeded '1m.

His committee could then do no more than delay the export of the paintings, furniture, photographs, manuscripts and antiquities it judged to be of national importance.

He described a reception held last night to mark the 50th anniversary of his committee as not a celebration but "a funeral wake for those lost".

Recent losses include an exquisite drawing by Michelangelo, a painting which two national museums joined forces to try to save, and a little book of theological advice to Henry VIII which helped to change the course of English history. The cost of saving the treasures under review is stupendous in British museum terms.

They are struggling to raise '60m: an unprecedented total necessitated by the coincidental appearance on the market of the Duke of Northumberland's Raphael, for which the National Gallery is trying to raise '29m, and Castle Howard's Portrait of Omai, by Reynolds, for which the Tate is trying to raise '19m

"We are undoubtedly facing a crisis at this juncture in our attempts to preserve our heritage," Sir John said.

"If virtually every item worth more than '1m that comes before the reviewing committee is not to be exported, we must also look to ministers in the [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] to press the Treasury hard.

"Otherwise the flood of exports of our heritage will grow and grow, especially with owners tempted by the huge prices for paintings by Rubens, Reynolds and Raphael. This crisis is likely to escalate."

His solution, which will be as welcome to the Treasury as a bailiff's demand, includes better tax breaks for owners who agree to sell direct to British museums, and for gifts of land and shares to charities.

He backed a demand of the Historic Houses Association, for owners of stately homes to be able to offset the cost of repairs and maintenance against tax, and delighted university museums by backing their call for the extension of VAT concessions in return for free admission.

But he also called for a big increase in the money the Treasury puts into the system.

Although he did not quantify this in his speech, he told the Guardian that he calculated this at an extra '30m a year in addition to an exceptional one-off grant to the National Gallery to save the Raphael.

He suggested that the extra money should be channelled through the national heritage memorial fund, which was set up in memory of Britain's war dead after the Mentmore disaster in the 70s, when the stately home was sold and its contents scattered after an offer to give them to the government in lieu of taxes had been turned down.

The NHMF, which also administers the heritage lottery fund but is a separate body and can make decisions much faster in a crisis, has empty coffers, having used its reserves last year to give the biggest grant in its history to save Tyntesfield, a remarkable Victorian house and estate.

Sir John is a retired senior civil servant and head of British Nuclear Fuels, and knows his way around every inch of the Treasury labyrinth.

His views were greeted with elation by the National Gallery director, Charles Saumarez Smith. "The export reviewing committee works admirably," he said, "but it is essentially powerless if the pictures which it recommends should remain in this country do not because of a shortage of funds."

Guardian Unlimited ' Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001