The Duke of Sutherland has recently confirmed that he wants to sell 2 prestigious pieces of his collection, the Bridgewater, lent since 1945 to the National Gallery of Scotland. Two masterpieces by the famous Italian artist Tiziano Vecellio, which portray Diana, goddess of hunting, have been offered on sale to two outstanding buyers who have joined their forces to secure these two wonderful canvases: the National Gallery of Scotland itself, located in Edinburgh, and London’s National Gallery. “Diana e Atteone” and “Diana e Callisto” were probably conceived by the artist between 1556 and 1559 for the sovereign of Spain Phillip II, who apparently appreciated their elegant erotic impetus. The two pictures belonged to a series, dedicated to Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, which over the years was broken up and distributed to various museums in the world, which included also the canvases “Diana”, “Venere e Adone” (both in Madrid, Museo del Prado), “Perseo e Andromeda” (Wallace Collection, London) and “Il ratto di Europa” (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston).
In 1623, the paintings were sent, as a diplomatic gift, to the future king of England Charles I who had asked for the Infanta of Spain’s hand, but the wedding was never celebrated and afterwards, in 1704, the pictures arrived in France as a gift to the Duke of Orléans.
In 1798, an important group of works – including the two canvases and other masterpieces by Raffaello, Rembrandt and Poussin – was bought by the Duke of Bridgewater in Orléans.
Therefore, the Duke of Sutherland is going to face a challenging assignment letting go the Venetian painter’s two works, which just recently have been defined by Lucian Freud as “simply the most beautiful pictures in the world”.
The total amount of the works is worth 100 million pounds (125 million euros), 50 million each, an excellent price that crowns the two Tiziano as the most expensive canvases ever to be bought by a public English collection, stealing the record from the “Madonna dei Garofani” (around 1506-07) by Raffaello, bought by the National Gallery in 2004 for 22 million pounds. Actually, it is a very advantageous offer that the duke is proposing to the two museums which, benefitting from tax breaks on the acquisition of works for a public collection, can buy the canvases for a third of their actual price. Indeed, according to experts, the real market value of the two extraordinary pieces would be about 300 million pounds (150 each=186 million euros).
Although the amount proposed to the two museums is favourable, the expense to manage for these public structures is astronomic, however, given that they have a budget of 5 million pounds per year for new purchases and that in February they had already dealt with a complex financial situation to buy the Anthony d’Offay collection.
At this point, the two British museums have started looking for funds – confiding in help from the government, art associations and private donors – in order to not be deprived of the milestones of their exhibition and not impoverish the public from an important piece of heritage to admire. John Leighton, general manager of the National Gallery of Scotland, considering the hypothesis of a flop talks about “inestimable damage”, because in such case the works would be purchased by private buyers and within a few months the loan at the museum could be paid off; in the case of a success it is questionable whether this move is equally risky and could compromise the eventual and forthcoming acquisition of other works.
If within the set date, 31st December 2008, the two museums will have bought the picture “Diana e Atteone” , the Duke has announced that he will assign for the same amount also “Diana e Callisto” within 2013; in this case they would be the most important acquisitions for the two museums, since 1850 for the Scottish National Gallery and since the nineteenth century for the London museum. The respected museums have guaranteed that the conquered paintings would find a worthy placement in their spaces (for the NGS they would be placed with the other pieces from the Bridgewater collection and for the NG they would find place among the most famous works from the Venetian Renaissance) and they would manage the joint ownership with alternated exhibitions, running every five years. It is a wonder why the Duke, after owning the pieces in question for so many years, wants to get rid of such precious gems of his own artistic heritage. No certain answer has been given with regard to this but, according to the Duke’s spokespeople, with time the collection has increased its value and now, considering the balance of the total family assets, it seems possible to sell at least a part of it.
At this point we can only wait until the end of the year to see who will get the better of this match: public or private buyers? Whatever happens, our hope is that culture is victorious and that the canvases find an appropriate location, possibly avoiding the world to be deprived for too long of their splendour.

Translated by Giorgina Arcuri