Export Licences

Museum and Art Fund launch fundraising to save Barbara Hepworth sculpture

A rare Anglo-Saxon gold and garnet panel bought at a Spink auction last year and blocked from export will stay in the UK after a successful crowdfunding campaign by a local history trust.

A temporary export bar has been placed on a painting of the Virgin Mary by Sandro Botticelli valued at £10.2m.

A rare Anglo-Saxon gold and garnet panel has been blocked from export from the UK after it was bought at auction at Spink in September last year.

An export bar has been placed on a set of highly decorated 17th century panels that sold at Sotheby’s last year for £1.62m.

A unique sculpture by Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) has been blocked from export following its sale at Christie’s in London earlier this year.

The UK government has placed a temporary export bar on two Roman mosaics dating from the fourth century AD. Together they are valued at £560,000.

Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum has acquired a Fra Angelico (fl.1417-55) Crucifixion scene which was blocked from export following its sale at Christie’s last year.

A temporary export bar has been placed on a needlework sampler by an 11-year-old 19th century schoolgirl depicting the Menai Bridge in Anglesey.

A remarkable archive of newly discovered scientific papers by the mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing and his collaborator Donald Bayley has been temporarily blocked from export.

A temporary export bar has been placed on a British coin sold at auction that features the never-seen-before name Esunertos.

A temporary export block has been placed on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s polar medal in the hope a buyer in the UK can pay £1.7m.

Two rare artworks sold through auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s have been temporarily blocked from export to give UK museums a chance to buy the multi-million-pound treasures.

A bottle vase by the famed studio potter Hans Coper which was owned by the world-renowned sculptor Henry Moore has been blocked from export in the hope a UK institution can raise the £600,000 price tag.

A New Testament bible formerly owned by the French King Jean II but believed to have been in the UK for more than 600 years has been temporarily barred from export.

A Giacometti chandelier and drawings which helped develop Kew Gardens have been blocked from export in the hope a UK institution will raise funding.

A temporary export block has been placed on a portrait of cavalry officers in the British Indian Army by Philip de László, in the hope it can be purchased by a UK institution.