A Botticelli painting, *The Virgin and Child Enthroned* (1470s), valued at £10.2 million, has been purchased by the Klesch Collection, a British private collection, after the UK government placed an export bar on the work in May 2025. The painting, which sold at Sotheby’s London in late 2024 for £9.7 million, will be loaned to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for three years, ensuring it remains in the UK.
The acquisition matters because it resolves a potential loss of a Renaissance masterpiece from the UK, highlighting the role of private collections in preserving cultural heritage through public loans. The Klesch Collection, founded by A. Gary and Dr. Anita Klesch, regularly lends works to institutions, and this purchase reinforces the partnership between private collectors and public museums. The export bar mechanism, used to prevent the departure of significant artworks, successfully facilitated a domestic sale that benefits both the collection and the museum-going public.