Tate And £4.95 Million Turner

Bloomberg reports that the Tate Art Gallery has succeeded in raising £4.95 million to purchase Turner's "The Blue Rigi" an 1842 watercolor that almost left the U.K. after an auction in June. This outcome raises hopes that British museums will be able to continue to make important acquisitions, even in the era of vertiginous art prices. The painting, which depicts a sunrise over a mountain on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, made headlines in June, when an overseas buyer snapped it up at Christie's International for £5.8 million , more than twice the previous auction record of £2.04 million for a Turner work on paper. British Culture Minister David Lammy placed a temporary ban on exporting the picture, giving the Tate until March 20 to match the pretax sales price, £4.95 million. Under the arrangement announced at a news conference, the National Heritage Memorial Fund - the "fund of last resort" for heritage at risk - will underwrite the acquisition to a maximum of £1.95 million. More than 11,000 members of the public, meanwhile, have contributed about £550,000 to the cause, heeding an appeal to buy "brushstrokes" of the work for £5 apiece. The remaining £2.5 million pounds will come from the Tate itself, which had previously pledged to allocate £2 million to the attempt to buy the painting, and the Art Fund, a charity that assists British museums with purchases, which had offered £500,000. (For full source and article click the Headline) Irish Art