Museum acquisitions

Jane Austen's House Museum in Hampshire successfully raised the £35,000 required to buy a fragment of a letter written by the great novelist in 1814. The rare manuscript was being sold on behalf of its private owner by London dealer Maggs.

The De Morgan Foundation is launching a series of initiatives to bring the works of Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919) and her husband William (1839-1917) to a wider audience.

A painting of the early Christian martyr St Agatha by Italian artist Carlo Dolci (1616-87) will return to Osterley Park and House in Middlesex where it once hung.

A view of the River Seine by Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-28) has entered the collection of The National Gallery in London under the acceptance in lieu scheme.

A curator of archaeology at the Yorkshire Museum in York and an assistant curator of ceramics at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent are among the winners of theArt Fund’s latest annual New Collecting Awards.

A JMW Turner landscape valued at £10m will be exported overseas unless funding can be raised to keep it in the UK.

The estate of Cornish artist Peter Lanyon’s (1918-64) widow, Sheila Lanyon, has agreed a tax deal allowing three pictures by the artist to be acquired by the nation for museums across the country.

A fundraising campaign has helped save a portrait of Charles Dickens (1812-70) rediscovered by dealer Philip Mould.

JMW Turner’s oil painting ‘Walton Bridges’ which sold at Sotheby’s in July last year has been bought for the nation after funding was secured by Norfolk Museums Service.

Jane Austen's House Museum in Hampshire has launched an appeal to raise the remaining funds needed to buy a fragment of a letter written by the great novelist in 1814.

A set of pier tables and mirrors from the Thomas Chippendale workshop has been accepted in lieu for the nation and allocated to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has emerged as the buyer of two major works: Corpus Christi, a small, 15th century wooden sculpture by Veit Stoss, and Two Boys with a Bladder (1769-70), a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby.

A William Hogarth (1697-1764) painting that has been on loan to the New Walk Museum & Art Gallery in Leicester since 1943 has been purchased for the gallery.

To celebrate 40 years since the release of Madness’ ‘One Step Beyond’ - the 1979 debut album by the British ska-pop group - the V&A has unveiled a collection of memorabilia.

The Jerwood Collection of Modern British art has emerged as the buyer of ‘Encounter No 1’, an oil painting by Michael Ayrton (1921-75). After selling at the recent auction it will now go on public view.

A watercolour by Solomon Alexander Hart (1806-1881), the first Jewish member of the Royal Academy, drew dramatic competition at Tennants’ latest sale in North Yorkshire.