Museum acquisitions

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).

London dealer Darnley Fine Art of Cecil Court has sold a study of Henry Nelson O’Neil’s picture Eastward Ho! to The National Army Museum.

The Lyme Regis Philpot Museum’s fundraising campaign raised enough to buy a letter fragment from Mary Anning (1799-1847) offered at a Bonhams auction.

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.

A Suffragette medal awarded to the chief nurse to Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) is to go on public display in the UK at a new exhibition after being bought at auction.

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.

A rare Tudor map of the Devon town Kingsbridge has been acquired by South West Heritage Trust.

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

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.

An autobiographical manuscript by a Georgian pharmacist in Dorset will return to the county after the local museum purchased it at auction.

The nation’s museums have benefitted from more than 30 art and objects via tax saving schemes.

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