Museums and Institutions

The 1844 portrait William Beckford on his Deathbed by Willes Maddox (1813-53) has been purchased by Bath Preservation Trust and will go on display at Beckford’s Tower and Museum this month.

Essex Police and Hollytrees Museum in Colchester are hoping to recover five 19th century medals stolen in a burglary earlier this month.

The former country home of William Morris and his family has undergone an extensive £6m refurbishment.

The Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath has bought Caroline Herschel’s visitor book dating from her time living near Windsor.

The National Trust is hoping to find a missing picture that was on display at Chastleton House in Oxfordshire.

A rare Renaissance roundel has been bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art nearly 20 years after its first attempt.

Israel Goldman’s private collection of paintings by 19th century Japanese artist Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89) will go on show from March this year.

The Louvre has agreed a partnership with Sotheby's to research the provenance of artworks acquired between 1933-45 by the museum.

The Honresfield Library of British Literature, containing more than 500 manuscripts, first editions and letters including works by the Brontë family, Robert Burns and Walter Scott, has been purchased by the Friends of the National Libraries for £15.3m.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angles has acquired an early first-century marble bust of the Roman general Germanicus, the adopted son of the Emperor Tiberius and father of Caligula.