Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

News was revealed since last summer that a Peter Paul Rubens masterpiece had returned on the market. And almost immediately, the famous English museums understood the difficulty of letting the occasion slip to to add Apotheosis of King James I to their collection.
Right from the start, the Tate Britain has proved to be the ideal candidate to receive the work, given the fact that it was painted by Rubens in Great Britain and therefore will marry perfectly into the collection. There have been rumours for some months now about an agreement with the family that currently owns the piece. Today, we finally discover more.
Apotheosis of King James I dates between 1629 and 1630; it was Rubens’ model for the decoration of the ceiling in Whitehall’s Banqueting House, the building designed by Iniguo Jones which is still in use today. The sketch is said to have been done in order to be approved by Charles I. The value of this work hasn’t posed any problems given its artistic and historical relevance. The painting was sold by the Viscount Hanpden family who’s been in ownership of it for more than two hundred years. The work was leased on loan to the National Gallery in 1981. Last summer its owners however decided to put it up for sale. At that moment, the National Gallery was in a true and proper crisis regarding its acquisition. During the same period in fact, the gallery was in fear of loosing another important asset: the series of five paintings entitled Sacrament completed by the French artist Nicolas Poussin and leased on loan to the National Gallery by the Duke of Rutland. The National Gallery could not find the resources to acquire both pieces. For this reason, and given the characteristics of the work, it was held that the Tate should try to compete to buy the Apotheosis of King James I.
The pressure upon the National Gallery definitely decreased when the Duke of Rutland decided to renounce the sale of the Poussin series and leave it on loan with the museum. In the director of the National Gallery, Nicholas Penny’s recent statements, he declares that the sketch would marry perfectly into the Tate Britain collection and that he fully supports the Tate’s fundraising campaign, despite initially showing a certain understandable disappointment in having to let go of this splendid work. The price hasn’t yet been revealed but some indiscretions that are becoming ever more insistent, have already leaked. Before summer, a sum of 5.7 million pounds was discussed. The winning sales however brought a delay to the deals. Till today it seems as if the agreed amount is 6 million pounds. The price upon which the Tate and the Hanpden family agreed had numerous fiscal advantages for the seller of such an art work to a public collection. The market price for the sketch would in fact be estimated at around 11 and a half million pounds.
The collected funds have already begun: the Art Fund offered 500,000 pounds, and the Tate members 300,000. Thanks to donations from other sources, it has increased to roughly one and a half million pounds. Hope now lies in the possibility of obtaining a contribution from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the fund that finances important acquisitions for museums, and used by British institutes as a last resource to draw on in order to obtain ownership of a piece that cannot be rejected. It is said that the Tate may have asked for the entire missing amount (4.5 million pounds), but the exact amount asked for is not yet known. It seems legal to await an answer during summer.
While the sale was already being discussed, the sketch was leased on loan to a Rubens exhibition held last September in Brussels. At the end of the exhibition, the painting was returned to the National Gallery at the start of March until it is sold to the Tate Britain. At present the painting is on exhibit together with another small oil sketch taking some of Whitehall’s alfresco details. The sketch represents Apollo who gives legal freedom suppressing greed. This work is on loan by Courtauld Gallery. The works will remain on exhibit until 31st July.