Duke offers British public a bargain masterpiece

A British aristocrat is offering two public art galleries a 50 million-pound (US$92 million) bargain - a Renaissance painting by the Italian artist Titian that has been on display in Britain for 200 years but now could be sold overseas.

"Diana and Actaeon," one of Titian's greatest works, is estimated to be worth 150 million pounds (US$275 million) on the open market.

Its owner, the Duke of Sutherland, has offered it to major public galleries for a third of that price. The National Galleries of Scotland and London's National Gallery launched a public appeal Thursday for funds to buy the painting. They hope to raise money from the government, arts bodies and private donors.

The galleries have until the end of the year to come up with the money, or the duke may offer it for private sale.

The Scottish National Galleries' director-general, John Leighton, said that losing "Diana and Actaeon" would be "like the Mona Lisa being taken out of the Louvre, or the Uffizi gallery in Florence losing its Botticellis."

"This collection has sat at the very heart of the national collection. It has been a source of pilgrimage for visitors or artists for the past 60 years and it really would be an incalculable loss," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

If the bid is successful, the duke says he will offer another Titian, "Diana and Callisto," to the galleries in four years at the same price.

Both paintings form part of the Bridgewater Collection of more than two dozen works by Old Masters including Raphael and Rembrandt.

Acquired by a British nobleman after the French Revolution, the collection has been on public display in Britain since the early 19th century. It has been on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh since 1945.

If the campaign to retain the Titians is successful, the rest of the collection will remain on long-term loan in Scotland, the galleries said in a statement. The Titians will alternate between London and Edinburgh.

The galleries said the duke had decided that given the value of the collection "it would be prudent to review the holding in relation to the family's overall assets" but wanted the collection to stay in Britain. The Sunday Times' annual Rich List this year valued his non-art assets at 30 million pounds (US$55 million), a fraction of his art collection's value.