SHORT TAKES : Britain Stalls Export of Painting
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LONDON — Britain has temporarily banned the export of one of the most famous paintings by 19th-Century British artist John Constable, which its owner wants to move to Switzerland.
Arts Minister Timothy Renton said British museums or other interested parties have until April 7 to make an offer for Constable’s “The Lock,” owned by Swiss industrialist Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen and priced at $21.6 million.
Renton said in a statement that the painting, which depicts a rural canal scene in the 1820s, is “considered to be of outstanding significance for the study of the work of one of Britain’s greatest artists.”
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