Deal to keep Reynolds masterwork in UK step nearer
National Portrait Gallery and Getty Museum agree joint ownership of £50m oil painting
THE Joshua Reynolds painting Portrait of Omai could be saved for the nation after a last-minute deal between the National Portrait Gallery and the Getty Museum, it has been reported.
Omai, a nobleman, arrived in London from his home in Polynesia in July 1774, aboard HMS Adventure, which had sailed as part of Captain James Cook’s second voyage and was painted in 1776 by Reynolds, after becoming somewhat of a celebrity feted by London society.
Directors from the galleries are believed to be trying to broker a deal to jointly purchase the £50million painting to prevent it being taken out of the country by a private buyer. The unusual arrangement could involve the Getty Museum in California displaying the work for periods, before returning it.
National Portrait Gallery (NPG) conservators are thought to have examined the painting and cleared it to be flown periodically to Los Angeles.
News of the talks emerged as the deadline for the painting to be purchased for the nation approached.
The NPG, Art Fund and National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) will make a joint announcement “about the campaign to save the painting for public view in the UK” on Monday.
The Government had placed a temporary export ban on the work to give a UK gallery or institution time to acquire it. It is owned by a company controlled by John Magnier, the Irish billionaire, who hung it in the NPG, which has been trying to keep it since it was put up for sale last year.
The Government-funded NHMF pledged £10million to help save the work, with the Art Fund promising to contribute an exceptional grant of £2.5million – the largest in its history.
Donations from trusts, foundations and individuals took the total to almost half the £50million needed to buy it, leaving the NPG to negotiate a deal with another gallery for the remainder.
A source told The Art Newspaper and The Independent that the Getty Museum had entered into talks to stop the painting going overseas, with Nicholas Cullinan, director of the NPG, determined to keep it in Britain. It is understood the National Heritage Memorial Fund would give its backing an arrangement with the Getty Museum.
A spokesman for the NHMF said: “Given the exceptional significance of the Portrait of Omai, we wish to be as flexible as we can [to] enable the UK public to access the painting and provide public benefit to the UK. Applications must demonstrate how our support will allow the UK public to access … the heritage it saves.”
The painting was bought in 2001 by Mr Magnier, a stud owner and a former stakeholder of Manchester United, for around £10 million. The Tate galleries offered to buy it from him for £12.5million in 2003 but he refused to sell it.