The UK government has placed an export bar on a rare work by the Renaissance sculptor Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico, valued at £4.6m. The 20-centimetre high Seated Nymph piece, dating from around 1503, is made of bronze with mercury gilding on the hair and drapery and silver-inlaid eyes, according to a statement from the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The export bar, which allows time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the painting, will initially expire on 17 December, after which the owners will have 15 business days to consider any offers at the recommended price, followed by a second deferral period of five months. “I very much hope this export bar can help keep this exquisite statue in the country where the public can also enjoy its beauty,” said Ruth Mackenzie, the recently-appointed minister for arts and museums, in a statement.
The sculpture, previously in the collection of the Dukes of Bedford, was sold at Sotheby’s London in 2009 for £1.4m (with fees). According to The Telegraph, the sculpture “had been gathering dust outside the pantry at the Duke of Bedford's home in Woburn Abbey [in Bedfordshire].” The work, considered "a dull, small bronze" by the Duke, was sold at the auction to the late dealer Alan Hobart of the now defunct Pyms Gallery. It was sold earlier this year by the sculpture dealer Patricia Wengraf to the present owner for £4.6m.
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, an independent body, advises the DCMS on whether cultural objects intended for export are of national importance.
Stuart Lochhead, a committee member and sculpture dealer, says in a statement: “Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico, forever linked his fame with his skill at imitating classical antiquity [hence the name Antico]. He developed a highly sophisticated technique for producing luxuriously finished bronze statuettes, becoming one of the leading artists at the court of Mantua.”
Another version of Seated Nymph is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and was featured in a major Antico exhibition that traveled to the Frick Collection in New York in 2012. Other key works by Antico can be found in the collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.