JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID’S SAINT JEROME WILL REMAIN IN QUEBEC.

is part of our history,” said Marie Montpetit, relying upon Quebec’s Cultural Heritage Act this week. “It is with pride that I announce today that Jacques-Louis David’s Saint Jerome will remain in Quebec.”

The political decision appears to end what seemed to be a murky struggle involving the National Gallery and several leading Quebec museums attempting to acquire the 1799 painting, which is owned by the Notre-Dame-de-Québec to finance the acquisition of a “national treasure” that otherwise might be bought by a foreign buyer.

However, Quebec newspapers reported that the David painting was likely in the National Gallery’s sights. Moreover, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Musée de la civilisation in Quebec City publicly expressed their interest in jointly acquiring the David painting — and in keeping it in Quebec.

In 1922, the David painting was donated to the parish corporation by two sisters, Geneviève and Henriette Cramail, who were descendants of the French artist Gustave Mailand, who had previously owned the work.

Late Monday afternoon, the National Gallery released a letter stating that it was not in “a bidding struggle” to buy the David, and that it did not intend to “pre-empt efforts by museums in Quebec to purchase the work.”

“We were led to believe that, although more than a year had elapsed since the painting was offered for sale, a Quebec institutional buyer seemed unlikely,” said the letter from Mayer and Françoise Lyon, chair of the museum’s board of trustees.

The letter suggested that if the National Gallery were to buy the David “it need not be on exclusive permanent display at the National Gallery of Canada. We would welcome developing a longterm loan agreement with museums in Quebec. Indeed, we have a long history of such arrangements.”

However, last week, Mayer said that the National Gallery was not interested in working with the Quebec museums on a joint acquisition, and that the David painting was “not a child of a divorced couple that shuttles back and forth.”

Monday’s letter added that the gallery’s board will proceed nonetheless with the sale of the Chagall painting in New York on May 15.

The Chagall painting’s departure from the gallery’s collection has prompted two online petitions in protest. Almost 900 people have signed the petitions, which call for La Tour Eiffel to remain in Ottawa.