Museum acquisitions

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.

A snuff-box made for Madame Adélaïde has set an auction record for a Sèvres box, selling for £150,000 (or a premium-inclusive £190,900).

Arts charity Jerwood Foundation has purchased a William Coldstream (1908-87) sketch from an art dealer in Somerset.

A 15th century Flemish devotional triptych discovered in an almshouse in Dorset is to be offered at auction next month with an estimate of £2.5m-3.5m.

Art and antiquities dealers Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch have sold two glass items to a US museum.

An enlarged copy of the original ‘His Masters Voice’ picture by Francis Barraud (1856-1924) is now on display at a museum in Rochester.

The J Paul Getty Museum has purchased a Hellenistic gold box-bezel ring, describing it as “one of the finest and best-preserved surviving examples of this ancient jewellery type”.