I ask because culture minister Ed Vaizey has temporarily blocked the export of the rare centrepiece – the only one of its kind in existence, to provide a last chance to keep it in the UK. Unless a matching offer of £295,000 can be raised, the centrepiece will be exported.
The centrepiece is of exceptional design and manufacture, and its design reflects the continuing European interest in experimental buildings, often built to celebrate a particular national event such as a royal birth or a military victory. It is the only known dated eighteenth-century centrepiece in architectural form executed in gilt-bronze.
Vaizey took the decision to defer granting an export licence for the centrepiece following a recommendation by the RCEWA, administered by Arts Council England. He hopes that ‘…the time granted by the export bar will allow a UK buyer to be found so it can remain here to be appreciated by all.’
Never having been exhibited in public before, if it remains in the UK it would encourage research into the organisation, production and export of gilt-bronze ornaments and figures when London was emerging as a centre for exporting and marketing of objects of art.
So, if you’re keen you have until 9th March 2014 to get in touch and declare an interest.
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