Bristol City Council has launched a one-week public fundraising campaign to raise £100,000 toward purchasing a newly attributed J.M.W. Turner oil painting, *The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol*, which is consigned to auction at Sotheby’s London on 2 July with an estimate of up to £300,000. The painting, made in 1792 when Turner was 17, was previously sold at Dreweatts Donnington Priory for £524.80 as a work by a follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson. If acquired, the work would go on display at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery this summer and will also be included in the upcoming *Turner and Constable* exhibition at Tate Britain.
The campaign matters because it highlights the growing role of public fundraising in securing culturally significant artworks for regional museums, especially when works are rediscovered and reattributed. The painting is the first and only known oil painting by Turner of a Bristol scene, making it a unique local heritage asset. Success would demonstrate how crowdfunding, combined with external donations and trusts, can enable smaller institutions to compete at auction, while failure could see the work leave the UK or enter a private collection, potentially triggering an export ban review by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.