The public appeal to save the famed Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I is gathering momentum. The Art Fund charity is driving the campaign to raise £10m so that the historic painting, which is being sold by the descendants of Sir Francis Drake, can be saved for the nation. “The #SaveArmada appeal was launched on 23 May with £1.4m in contributions from Art Fund and Royal Museums Greenwich, towards the £10m needed. The appeal total now stands at £2.7m with further approaches to major funders underway,” says an Art Fund statement (7,000 public donations plus match funding and grants from charitable trusts have powered the funding initiative). The allegorical portrait shows Elizabeth I surrounded by symbols of imperial power, with two background scenes depicting the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The queen’s fingers cover the Americas, indicating her plans to expand into the New World. If the appeal succeeds (and people dig deep), the painting will hang in the National Maritime Museum's Queen’s House, built on the site of Greenwich Palace, the birthplace of Elizabeth I in 1533.