Britain's museums and galleries have fallen along way behind their international counterparts when it comes to acquiring new works for their collections, according to figures released yesterday by the Art Fund.

The figures compiled from nine leading international institutions for the year 2004-05 show New York's Metropolitan Museum spent twice as much on a single painting - Duccio's "Madonna and Child", bought for $50m (£26m) - as the total spent on acquisitions by Britain's four leading museums and galleries: the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Tate galleries.