Masterpiece to leave Britain

A DUTCH masterpiece sold by the Earl of Wemyss last year is set to head to its overseas buyer after a UK government export bar on the £1.6 million painting expired this week.

The art charity the Art Fund was prepared to meet half the cost of the Jan de Bray painting in order to buy it for a public gallery in Hull and keep it in Britain, The Scotsman has learned.

But Hull City Council, whose Ferens Art Gallery boasts a famous collection of Dutch paintings, baulked at committing the rest of the cash in the midst of job cuts.

The UK Department of Culture put a temporary export bar on the "unique" and "impressive" 1670 work to give a chance to a British buyer to match the 1,622,260 price. It will now go to the un-named European institution that bought the work.

The painting, in the Wemyss family collection at Gosford House, East Lothian, has been shown at the National Gallery of Scotland and major exhibitions elsewhere. A spokesman for the earl said: "The family would always prefer to see paintings remain in this country if possible."