HALIFAX—A federal review board has rejected the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s application to certify a multimillion-dollar collection of photographs by famed American artist Annie Leibovitz as “cultural property” of outstanding significance.

The decision is a major blow to the Halifax gallery, which has held the collection in storage for four years, and casts a shadow over the prospects of organizing an exhibit of the photographer’s works.

A gallery spokesperson said the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board concluded that the bulk of the photographs did not meet the criteria for “outstanding significance” or “national importance,” crucial for tax incentives for the Toronto family that donated the collection to the gallery.

The collection of 2,070 photos includes a portrait of a naked and pregnant Demi Moore, a brooding Queen Elizabeth II, and the haunting photo of a naked John Lennon and Yoko Ono cuddling on a floor hours before the musician was gunned down in front of his New York apartment.

It was the gallery’s fourth attempt at certification, and officials have said it is likely their last because of time constraints.

Spokesperson Colin Stinson said the gallery is “extremely disappointed” and disagrees with the federal board’s decision, noting that Leibovitz is one of the most influential photographers of her time.

He said the gallery’s priority is to display the photography, but without the designation that decision belongs to Leibovitz.

The donation was a colossal score for the gallery, which owned nothing by Leibovitz at the time.

For Leibovitz, who had a financial crisis several years earlier, the transaction meant she earned several million dollars.

And the donor, a Deloitte Canada partner who said he had bought the collection to honour his mother’s memory, stood to qualify for a generous tax deduction and recognition as an arts patron.

Four years later, though, the review board was balking at approving the deduction, partly because the panel would not accept a $20-million valuation for a collection that the donor purchased for $4.75 million.

An adviser to the board described the arrangement in notes to the tribunal as “a tax grab,” according to the CBC, which first reported on the impasse. That characterization was vigorously disputed by Harley Mintz, the Deloitte Canada partner, now retired, who bought the Leibovitz material in 2013.

“We were asked,” Mintz told The New York Times in an email, “to help facilitate a major gift to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia that would provide it with a unique collection of art from one of the world’s most praised photographers and that is exactly what we did. Instead of being celebrated, it has been met with resistance, for reasons that we do not understand.”

The odyssey of Leibovitz’s collection provides a window into the process by which governments work to bolster cultural enrichment by underwriting private donations of art with tax deductions. In Canada, where such deductions receive more government scrutiny than in the U.S., the process can include disputes over the national significance of the art, as well as its value, and sometimes, questions regarding whether a donor’s motives are more philanthropic or opportunistic.

The museum is in the midst of its fourth application to have the collection accepted by the panel, the Cultural Property Export Review Board, which certifies donated works as nationally significant and then determines their value.

The panel has granted such status to only 762 of the prints, at a value of $1.6 million.

In the meantime, the entire collection is in storage and Leibovitz has received only half of the promised $4.75 million. By contract, she does not receive the rest of the money unless the government panel signs off, according to Mintz.

Just how this ambitious, but now stalled, art initiative was born remains unclear. Leibovitz, through her gallery, declined to comment. The museum said through a spokesperson that it did not come up with the idea. And Mintz said only that he was approached by “knowledgeable art-world figures” after the idea for such a gift arose.

He declined to say whom, citing a confidentiality agreement.

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Mintz was the second businessman to consider buying the collection for the museum. The first, Larry Rossy — founder of the Canadian discount retail chain Dollarama — dropped out in 2012 after beginning the application process for a tax shelter, according to the CBC. He declined to comment on why he withdrew.

Mintz, who said he was approached about the gift a few weeks later, said the opportunity attracted him because his mother had been a big fan of Leibovitz.

At the time of the gift, he said Leibovitz preferred that this collection — with prints of her Rolling Stone cover of Yoko Ono and John Lennon and images of the Blues Brothers — go to a smaller museum. “She felt it would have a greater impact than in a large, established institution,” Mintz told the Star in 2013.

But why would she accept $4.75 million for a collection that might be worth some multiple of that? That is one issue that has given Canadian officials pause, though the $20-million valuation is supported by three independent appraisals undertaken by the museum within days of the sale and donation. One of the appraisers, Lucy von Brachel, declined to comment on her valuation, citing the privacy of her clients, but other experts said that the 2,070 Leibovitz pictures could be worth $20 million if they were sold individually over time instead of all at once.

Alan Klinkhoff, a gallery owner in Canada who has been an expert for the Canadian government, agreed that it was conceivable that the Leibovitz photographs could be fairly valued at $20 million. Leibovitz, he said, could have been motivated to accept less because she was able to sell a large number of photographs quickly.

“I can’t imagine that you’re going to sell 2,000 Annie Leibovitz prints at whatever her prices are in a shorter period of time,” he said.

A review board spokesperson, citing taxpayer confidentiality, declined to comment on why the entire Leibovitz collection had not met its standard of “outstanding significance and national importance.” But the board said that it typically made those determinations based on factors, including artistic value, esthetic qualities and the work’s association with Canadian history.

Some have wondered why the full collection did not pass muster with the board.

“I’m quite mystified as to why this has not been given the significance that it should have received,” Leo Glavine, Nova Scotia’s culture minister, told the CBC this month.

For the museum, the Leibovitz collection was supposed to be a triumph that would cement Halifax as a premiere cultural destination in Canada. Instead, it has become a headache. Museum officials have suggested that Leibovitz must give the green light for any exhibition of the works to go ahead.

“I know that Nova Scotians and Art Gallery of Nova Scotia visitors are eager and excited to see this collection,” the museum’s director, Nancy Noble told the New York Times in an email. “I know the results of previous applications — and the length of time it has taken — has been frustrating for the artist, the donor and, most importantly, for Nova Scotians.”

But still, Noble expressed hope that the board would come through on the fourth try. A decision is expected by the fall.

“Our priority is to share the work of this iconic and celebrated artist — in our gallery and across the country,” Noble added.

With files from Sopan Deb and Colin Moynihan of The New York Times

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