The Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in England has launched a fundraising campaign to acquire a rare 15th-century Netherlandish altarpiece, known as *The Master of the Sherborne Almshouse Triptych*, valued at up to £3.5 million ($4.6 million). The work is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in an Old Master evening sale next month, and the museum aims to prevent it from entering a private collection or being exported. The triptych, which depicts five healings of Jesus Christ, was hidden during periods of iconoclastic destruction and rediscovered in St. John’s Almshouse in Sherborne in the 19th century; it has only left the site twice, for exhibitions at the Royal Academy in 1923 and the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2003.
This campaign matters because the altarpiece is considered an exceptionally rare survival of medieval Netherlandish art, having endured centuries of religious and political upheaval. Its sale into private hands would likely remove it from public view, breaking a centuries-long connection to the local community and heritage. The museum’s effort highlights the ongoing tension between preserving cultural treasures for public benefit and the financial pressures that force institutions and trustees to consider auctioning historically significant works. Success would keep the triptych accessible to the public and maintain its place in Dorset’s cultural history.