皇冠体育app

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on the outstanding painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, La Surprise.听 This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the painting in the United Kingdom.听

皇冠体育app Minister鈥檚 ruling follows a recommendation by the , administered by the (MLA). 皇冠体育app Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the painting is of outstanding aesthetic importance.

, which dates from c.1718, shows a man, dressed as the theatrical character Mezzetin, playing a guitar next to an embracing couple. Watteau was associated with paintings of the fetes galantes, a genre of his invention in which elegant couples converse and flirt in an outdoor setting. La Surprise, painted shortly before the artist鈥檚 untimely death at the age of 37, shows Watteau at his most inventive. 皇冠体育app painting displays a great delicacy of pose and brushwork and has a harmonious composition that recalls the work of Claude Lorrain.

While there are many examples of Watteau鈥檚 paintings in public and private collections in the UK, this rediscovered work is in a fine condition for a work by the artist.

Johnny Van Haeften, Reviewing Committee member, said: 鈥淟a Surprise is undoubtedly one of Watteau鈥檚 most important and pleasing works. 皇冠体育app fine glazes have not been compromised and the brushwork shows the hand of the master at his best.鈥�

皇冠体育app decision on the export licence application for the painting will be deferred for a period ending on 6 September 2011 inclusive. This period may be extended until 6 June 2012 inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the painting at the recommended price of 拢17,500,000 is expressed.

Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the painting should contact the owner鈥檚 agent through:
听
皇冠体育app Secretary
皇冠体育app Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Grosvenor House
14 Bennetts Hill
Birmingham
B2 5RS

Tel: 0121 345 7427

Notes to editors

1. For all media enquiries please contact Senior Media Relations Adviser,听Sunita Sharma, on 020 7273 8299, email: [email protected]

2. For enquiries on the operation of and casework arising from the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) please contact Peter Rowlands, RCEWA Secretary, on 0121 345 7427, email [email protected].

3. 皇冠体育app Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the recommended fair market price.

4. 皇冠体育app details of the painting are: * Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) * La Surprise (c. 1718) * oil on panel * 36.3 x 28.2 cm

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