Museums and Institutions

Strawberry Hill House, the London home created by the famed historian, collector and social commentator Horace Walpole (1717-97), is fundraising to buy a picture once in his collection.

The J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has bought two 17th century Dutch still life paintings, one by Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606-84) and one by his slightly older predecessor Pieter Claesz (1597/98-1660).

Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Cornwall has purchased an important painting by Walter Langley (1852-1922) after successfully raising the £65,000 needed to acquire it from a local authority in Surrey.

The Lyme Regis Philpot Museum has launched a fundraising campaign in the hope it can secure a letter fragment written by the English fossil collector and palaeontologist Mary Anning (1799-1847). It is being offered at a Bonhams auction this month.

Lord Ashcroft’s collection of Victoria Crosses and George Crosses, the largest of its kind in the world, is to have a new home at the National Army Museum in west London.

Natural history and antiquities gallery David Aaron is involved in the planned exhibition of a theropod fossil at Hollytrees Museum in Colchester. The fossil may be key to uncovering a new dinosaur species.

A bonheur-du-jour secrétaire by celebrated cabinetmaker Roger Vandercruse Lacroix (1728-99) has been purchased by a museum in Kansas from French dealer Galerie Léage for a six-figure sum.

The British Museum raised the £3.5m needed to buy a gold pendant discovered by a metal detectorist in a field in Warwickshire in 2019.

Following the last-minute withdrawal of arguably Sotheby’s headline lot of the latest round of Old Master sales in New York, it has been announced that the rare double-sided panel by Antonello da Messina (c.1430-79) has been acquired by the Italian Ministry of Culture.

The Royal Air Force Museum has purchased two preparatory drawings for major wartime paintings by Walter Thomas Monnington (1902-76).

The number of archaeological objects unearthed by the British public in 2024 (the most recent available figures) has soared to close to 80,000 items.

A 'lost' portrait of Scottish poet Robert Burns, rediscovered at auction last year, has been loaned to the National Galleries Scotland for exhibition by its new owner.

A bust of 18th century politician and landowner John Gordon of Invergordon (1707-83) has been blocked from export by the UK government in the hope a museum will raise the £3.1m needed to keep it in the country.

Three photographs of computing pioneer Ada Lovelace (1815-52) have been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in a private treaty sale.