Export bar as bid starts to keep £29m Raphael in UK
A £29m Raphael drawing which sold for a world record price at auction has been temporarily barred from export in a bid to raise money to keep it in the UK.
Head of a Muse sold for 29,161,250, including buyer's premium – a world record price for any work on paper to go under the hammer – at Christie's in London in December.
It was the second highest price for an Old Master painting or drawing sold at auction and a world record price for the Italian Renaissance artist.
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Hide AdCulture Minister Margaret Hodge has put the export bar on the work after a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest.
The committee said the work was of "outstanding" aesthetic importance and significance.