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Displaying items by tag: the transfiguration

Monday, 29 July 2013 18:21

Britain Lifts Export Ban on Raphael Drawing

British authorities have lifted the export ban on Raphael’s drawing Head of a Young Apostle. The Old Master work will go to Leon Black, a New York-based billionaire who paid $47.9 million for it at Sotheby’s London in December 2012. The drawing, which was created between 1519 and 1520, was a study for the artist’s revered painting The Transfiguration, which resides in the Vatican’s collection.

The UK’s arts minister Ed Vaizey quickly placed the work under an export ban following the sale, which broke the auction record for a work on paper. The point of the ban was to provide enough time for an interested buyer to raise the money necessary to keep the drawing in the country. The ban expired on July 3, 2013 and was not extended.

Britain has recently employed a number of export bans on culturally significant works. Two pieces, which were purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, are currently being held in the U.K. Officials are waiting to see if any buyers will step forward for a rare 15th century Flemish manuscript titled Roman de Gillion de Trazignes and Rembrandt Laughing, a self-portrait by the Dutch master. The Getty paid $5.8 million and $25 million for the works respectively.

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Friday, 05 April 2013 16:24

Export Ban Placed on Raphael Drawing

A temporary export bar has been placed on a drawing by Raphael (1483-1520) titled Head of a Young Apostle. The Renaissance masterpiece, which is worth upwards of $47 million, is one of finest works held in a British private collection.

The drawing has been a part of the Duke of Devonshire’s collection at Chatsworth since the 1700s and was sold at Sotheby’s in December for $47.8 million, nearly three times the drawing’s low estimate. The Raphael work, which broke the auction record for a work on paper, was sold to benefit the Chatsworth’s long-term future and that of its collections. The UK’s arts minister, Ed Vaizey, hopes that an export bar will provide enough time for an interested buyer to raise the money necessary to keep the drawing in the country.

Head of a Young Apostle was created between 1519 and 1521 as a study for one of the figures in Raphael’s final painting, the Vatican’s The Transfiguration.

 

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