Joshua Reynolds’s 'Portrait of Mai'—previously known as Omai—to be jointly acquired by the National Portrait Gallery and Getty Museum

London’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is set to save Joshua Reynolds’s Portrait of Mai (Omai) (around 1776) in an unusual joint acquisition with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In today’s statement, the two museums announced plans “to jointly acquire and share ownership” in “a new model of international collaboration”.

The idea is that the Reynolds painting will be on display in London and Los Angeles half the time, being moved between the two museums perhaps every five years.

The painting depicts a Tahitian man known as Mai (around 1753-80), who arrived in Britain with Captain Cook in 1774. Although up until now the portrait has been entitled Omai by the NPG and the UK authorities, its title is being changed today to reflect more accurately the sitter’s Tahitian name. The picture has been owned since 2001 by the Dublin-based businessman John Magnier.

Nicholas Cullinan, director of the NPG, comments: “The portrait is unique in both British and world culture and yet has never been in a museum collection: now it has the potential to be in two, one facing the Pacific from where Mai came, and the other only yards from Reynolds’s studio, where it was painted.”

Timothy Potts, the Getty director, says: “Reynolds’s Portrait of Mai is both an icon of British portraiture and a uniquely noble representation of a person of colour from the Pacific islands — a region that was in Mai’s day being colonised by Britain and other European nations.”

A UK export licence has been deferred three times by the arts minister to allow a UK buyer to match the price, most recently earlier this month until 10 June. At this point the NPG had raised nearly half the £50m (including £2.5m from the Art Fund), but finding the remainder represented an almost insurmountable challenge. Discussions were therefore intensified with the Getty to try to reach an agreement on a joint acquisition.

Among the hurdles had been retaining support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, which had provisionally allocated a £10m grant for a sole UK purchase. The fund was concerned about government money going for an acquisition which would be in America half of the time.

However, there was an equally strong argument that the retention of the portrait in Britain on this basis would still benefit UK gallery-goers and be better than losing the Reynolds entirely. Today’s statement acknowledges the £10m pledge, which means that the fund now supports a joint acquisition.

Another hurdle is that the Getty will need firm assurances from the UK authorities that temporary export licences will always be available to allow Mai to periodically travel to Los Angeles.

If the joint acquisition had not been agreed, then the painting might well have been acquired solely by the Getty. It is one of the very few museums in the world able to spend tens of millions of dollars on acquisitions, thanks to its massive endowment. In the past it has bought a number of export-deferred masterpieces from British collections when UK museums had failed to raise the necessary funds.

This will be the first occasion when a UK museum has cooperated with one abroad for a major acquisition of a physical artwork, although it has occasionally happened in Europe. In 2016 the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam bought a €160m pair of Rembrandt portraits of Marten Soolmans and his wife Oopjen Coppit. Digital artworks, however, such as Christian Marclay’s The Clock (2010), have been jointly acquired by UK and international institutions.

Today’s statement states that the NPG still needs to raise just under £1m to pay for its half share of the price, but it is almost inconceivable that this will not be achieved. There may well be technical details about the joint purchase that still need to be ironed out, but today’s announcement suggests that these will be satisfactorily resolved.

The UK arts minister, Stephen Parkinson, says in the joint statement that the two museums are “closing in on finalising a deal”, suggesting that it is not certain, but is virtually agreed.

Mai is expected to be on show at the NPG when it reopens on 22 June after a major building renovation. Today’s statement says that it is due to be displayed at the Getty during the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. This suggests that at least initially, the Reynolds masterpiece will travel every five years.