Turner withdrawn from National Galleries of Scotland after 30 years
Galleries unable to raise money to buy work
Tate director Nicholas Serota has expressed concerns about the sale at auction this summer of a Turner painting that has been on loan to National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) since 1978.
Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino (1839), which featured in the NGS’s Turner and Italy exhibition last year, is being sold by the Earl of Rosebery’s family at Sotheby’s on 7 July. The estimated price is £12m-£18m.
Serota said: “This is a hugely important painting – a wonderful work. It’s very sad that although it has been on long loan in Edinburgh, it is going to be sold. If it is sold abroad, I’m sure there will be opposition to an export licence.”
An NGS spokeswoman said: “We are not in a position to acquire it at the moment. However, we are lucky that 19th-century British art remains a strength of the permanent collection.”
The NGS has committed £4.6m until March 2011 from its purchase funds, trust funds and reserves towards the £50m joint purchase of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon with London’s National Gallery.
The NGS is raising £50m for a second Titian owned by the Duke of Sutherland, Diana and Callisto.
Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino (1839), which featured in the NGS’s Turner and Italy exhibition last year, is being sold by the Earl of Rosebery’s family at Sotheby’s on 7 July. The estimated price is £12m-£18m.
Serota said: “This is a hugely important painting – a wonderful work. It’s very sad that although it has been on long loan in Edinburgh, it is going to be sold. If it is sold abroad, I’m sure there will be opposition to an export licence.”
An NGS spokeswoman said: “We are not in a position to acquire it at the moment. However, we are lucky that 19th-century British art remains a strength of the permanent collection.”
The NGS has committed £4.6m until March 2011 from its purchase funds, trust funds and reserves towards the £50m joint purchase of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon with London’s National Gallery.
The NGS is raising £50m for a second Titian owned by the Duke of Sutherland, Diana and Callisto.