The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has raised $4.48 million ($5.8 million) to acquire Fra Angelico's early Renaissance painting "The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and the Magdalen" (1420s). The work had been in a private British collection for two centuries and was nearly sold to a foreign buyer until the U.K. government imposed an export deferral in January 2024, giving time for a domestic buyer to step in. The acquisition was completed via a private treaty sale at a discounted price, funded by over 50 donors including chairman Lord Lupton, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, and the Headley Trust.
The acquisition matters because it keeps a rare Fra Angelico work in the U.K. and brings it into public ownership for the first time, allowing free access at the Ashmolean. The painting will join a later triptych by the same artist already in the museum's collection, offering visitors and University of Oxford students a unique opportunity to study the evolution of his style. The case also highlights the effectiveness of the U.K.'s export deferral system in retaining culturally significant artworks, following a similar summer 2024 case where the V&A saved a medieval ivory statue from export to the Met.