The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London is in a last-minute push to raise £50 million ($60 million) to acquire Joshua Reynolds's 1776 portrait of Omai, a Polynesian visitor to Britain, before a temporary export ban expires on March 10. Despite raising roughly £25 million through a grassroots campaign involving public donations, a £2.5 million grant from the Art Fund, and £10 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the NPG remains short of its goal and is reportedly in secret talks with the Getty Museum to jointly purchase the painting.
This campaign matters because the portrait is a historically significant depiction of one of the first Polynesians to visit Britain, and its acquisition would keep a major work of British art in the public domain. If purchased at the full price, it would tie the record for the most expensive artwork ever bought by a U.K. museum, matching the 2009 joint acquisition of Titian's Diana and Actaeon. The outcome could set a precedent for how U.K. institutions collaborate with international partners to retain culturally important works amid rising market values.