Oddie in bid to save Monarch

BILL Oddie is calling on wealthy lairds to save one of Scotland’s most famous paintings from being lost to an overseas buyer.

The conservationist said The Monarch of the Glen, which features a stag standing in front of a misty Highland backdrop, has become something akin to a ‘national picture’.

Painted by Englishman Sir Edwin Landseer in 1851, the oil-on-canvas work is expected to fetch up to £10million at auction after whisky giant Diageo announced last week it is to sell it.

Mr Oddie, pictured, who in a 1971 episode of The Goodies mistook the majestic creature for a cow ‘with big twigs stuck to its head’, said: ‘Monarch of the Glen must be one of the most successful paintings in history. The thought of it going abroad is sad – you can’t tell me there aren’t some wealthy estate-owning Scots who couldn’t afford to buy it.’