
Representatives of the art trade will doubtless note your front page report “US billionaire’s record swoop rocks London art market” (January 25). Their interest in the story is purely pecuniary and, having found a way of circumventing the internationally respected UK reviewing process for the export of works of art and objects of cultural interest, they are no doubt cracking open the champagne.
But the nation’s art-loving public, and students and scholars of the history of 18th-century Britain, are impoverished. Harewood House in West Yorkshire, which we are told needs the money, has been exemplary in making its collections available to view and engaging with questions about the production and reception of artworks.
The painting in question — Joshua Reynolds’ “Portrait of Lady Worsley” (circa 1776), reproduced in colour in your article — shows the subject wearing a riding habit in a “mode militaire” that was adopted in support of national militias at a time of growing fears about a French invasion.
Inferring political messages from a dress is in the news again with Jo Ellison’s column about Donald Trump’s wife, Melania (“Who’s afraid of Melania Trump?”, Life & Arts, January 25).
Stephen Schwarzman, a Trump supporter who was given an honorary knighthood last year by the UK government, owes it to the British nation whose cultural heritage he is acquiring to offer assurances that the works of art he is purchasing will not at some later date be transported to his overseas property and that adequate provision will be made for public viewing.
Meanwhile, the government needs to consider urgently how to ensure our cultural heritage remains not only in the UK but accessible to the public.
Marcia Pointon
Professor Emerita in History of Art
University of Manchester, UK