Rich Man Gives Country Days To Save His Titian Art Collection

“FOUR months to save £300million masterpieces” – Times

“It’s the £100m race to keep Old masters in National Gallery” – Herald

Any reason why the Scottish paper shold focus on the Duke of Sutherland’s offer to sell Titian’s Diana & Actaeon and Diana & Callisto for £50million a piece to the nation at a discount to their £300m market value?

The Duke has set a deadline of New Year’s Eve for the country to cough up for D&A. We have four years to find the £50 million for D&C.

The directors of the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London say that the £100 million offer is a “stupendous deal”.

We need these pictures lest we are forced fill the spaces on walls in institutions with different pictures owned by the very rich…

And the Duke..? Well, he’ll muddle along, depsite his largesse:

Last year the 7th Duke of Sutherland decided to sell all or some of the collection - which has been estimated at being worth £1bn on the open market - after a “prudent review” of his family’s assets.

If not his land…

Anorak

Posted: 28th, August 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Money Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink