The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) was accused today of trashing its remit to record individuals of “status” who have contributed to “British history and culture”.

The state-funded gallery announced that it wants to acquire a controversial work in which a relatively little-known artist made a cast of his head from his own frozen blood.

If the NPG can raise £350,000 by the end of the year, it will display Marc Quinn’s refrigerated Blood Head alongside portraits of kings and queens, statesmen and scientists who made their mark on the nation’s history. Quinn’s only major commission so far is the Trafalgar Square plinth. He has yet to be nominated for the Tate’s high-profile Turner Prize.

Although the NPG has many portraits of individuals now consigned to footnotes, they were at the time considered notable, and history has merely lowered their status. This is a collection that boasts images of Henry VIII, William Shakespeare and Lord Olivier, and many by the greatest masters of their day, including Holbein and Hilliard.

Julian Spalding, former director of public galleries and museums in Sheffield, Manchester and Glasgow, said that, quite apart from the art, one cannot say that this artist has the necessary status.

“The NPG’s remit is to collect images of people who have made a contribution to British life,” he said. “I can’t see what contribution Marc Quinn has made to anyone — except to himself in making money.”

He added: “I’m horrified. This is not a work of art. It’s a cast. A cast isn’t a work of art. It’s not created. It’s meaningless.”

David Lee, a leading art commentator and editor of The Jackdaw, said: “This suggests to me that the NPG is beginning to collect art rather than portraits, which is against its remit ... What I’d question is whether Marc Quinn is famous enough to be in the NPG.”

Mocking Blood Head as a “black pudding” more suited to the Tate than the NPG, he said that Quinn had done well out of the taxpayer with various commissions.

Blood Head or Self was made in 2006 with ten pints of Quinn's blood. It is the latest in a series that began in 1991.

One of them was bought for a reported £13,000 by the advertising millionaire Charles Saatchi who caused a furore in 1997 by lending it to the Royal Academy’s Sensation exhibition, along with other bloody works from his collection.

Since then the artist has made a new cast every five years, claiming that he is documenting his own transformation and ageing. He is said to be planning a final one after his death, when he wants his blood to be drained out of his body.

The NPG hailed the Blood Head as “unconventional, innovative and challenging” and said that it would complement its extensive collection of artists’ self-portraits made over the past 500 years.

Sandy Nairne, its Director, said: “Marc Quinn’s Self is a work of international significance — a brilliant and poignant extension to the genre of self-portraiture.”

He described Quinn as “an internationally known artist” who was worthy of inclusion in the NPG: “His Blood Head has been very influential for younger artists.”

Quinn, who has also made self-portraits with his own excrement, is best known for his Trafalgar Square offering, a depiction of the heavily pregnant body of the artist Alison Lapper, who was born with no arms and shortened legs. The artist took casts of her body when she was eight months’ pregnant and gave them to a group of Italian craftsmen who carved the piece in marble.

Self is now on offer to the NPG through the artist’s gallery, White Cube, which also represents Damien Hirst. The deadline is December 31. The fund-raising appeal was kick-started by The Art Fund, the independent art charity, which has given £100,000 towards the purchase.

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