The UK government has placed a temporary export ban on Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi’s 16th-century bronze Seated Nymph, valued at £4.6 million, giving British public collections until December 17 to match an overseas buyer’s acquisition price, per artnet.com.
Standing under eight inches tall, the mercury-gilded and silver-inlaid statuette was cast circa 1503 for Isabella d’Este and later passed through the collections of King Charles I and the Dukes of Bedford.
Arts minister Ruth Mackenzie described the work as “small but mighty.”
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest recommended the deferral under Waverley criteria, citing outstanding aesthetic value and relevance to British sculpture-collecting history.
The bronze was acquired privately via London dealer Patricia Wengraf in April by an overseas buyer. If a British institution registers interest by December 17, a funding window of up to five months will open. This follows a separate £71.7 million export hold placed on a Rembrandt portrait.
Commissioned in Mantua at the turn of the 15th century, Antico’s classicising bronzes rarely reach the open market; a verified piece previously fetched £1.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2009.
•Featured image:Antico’s Seated Nymph. Photo courtesy the UK Department of Culture, Music, and Sport.