The UK government has imposed an export bar on Sandro Botticelli's painting *The Virgin and Child Enthroned* (1470s), valued at £10.2 million. The work was sold at Sotheby’s London in December 2024 for £9.7 million (with fees). The export bar, effective until 8 August, gives a UK gallery or institution time to acquire the painting and prevent it from leaving the country. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has set a recommended price of £9,960,000 plus VAT. The painting, which had been kept at Betterton House in Berkshire since 1944, was previously owned by collector Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd (Lady Wantage) and has not been seen in public for nearly a century.
This export bar matters because it highlights the UK's ongoing effort to retain culturally significant artworks for the nation, especially those with deep historical and scholarly value. Botticelli's early Renaissance masterpiece offers crucial insights into his career development, workshop practices, and Florentine art. If no domestic buyer steps forward, the painting could leave the UK, potentially depriving British audiences and researchers of access to a work that has been hidden from public view for decades. The case also underscores the tension between private sales at auction and public heritage preservation.