Museum acquisitions

A silver tumbler made by 17th century Chester silversmith Peter Pemberton has been bought by a trust to ensure it will stay on public display in its home town.

Two abstract sculptures by Sir Anthony Caro have been acquired for the nation as part of the ‘Acceptance in Lieu’ scheme. Together they have settled £2.7m of inheritance tax due from the estate of Caro’s wife, the artist Sheila Girling, who died in 2015.

Dealer Philip Mould was among the bidders at Sotheby’s sale of the Yeats collection this week.

Leading players in Irish arts and culture have protested at the sale of the Yeats Collection by Sotheby’s tomorrow (September 27), urging the Irish government to intervene and save it for the nation.

More than 1000 works were acquired by the Tate in the last year according to its latest annual report. They ranged from Old Masters to Contemporary art and had a combined value of £27.4m.

The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent had a double celebration today when it welcomed home a vase by master potter Josiah Wedgwood and launched a fundraising campaign to buy the Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs.

A sapphire and diamond coronet designed by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria has been acquired by the V&A Museum. It was previously sold by a London dealer to an overseas buyer but was blocked from export by the government in 2015.

A painting by Canaletto’s nephew Bellotto has been saved for the nation after being acquired by the National Gallery in London.

Modern British art specialist Pallant House Gallery hopes to raise the final thousands of pounds needed to keep Christopher Wood’s ‘China Dogs in a St Ives Window’ (1926) in its Chichester gallery.

The Bruton Museum in Somerset has bought a rare silver tankard at nearby saleroom Lawrences of Crewkerne.

Los Angeles’ J Paul Getty Museum has bought 16 Old Master drawings in its largest-ever purchase by value.

A museum in The Netherlands has bought a 3000-year-old ceremonial sword at a Christie’s auction. It had been found around 120 years ago in a peat bog.

Islington Museum is to show off the Kenneth Halliwell screen collage that it bought at auction as part of a new exhibition to mark two important anniversaries.

A long-running appeal to raise nearly half a million pounds to return a Wedgwood’s First Day’s vase to Staffordshire has triumphed.

The Goldsmiths’ Company has pledged £10m to help fund the creation of a new home for The Museum of London.

The Victoria & Albert Museum has bought the archive of revolutionary magazine Oz and its maverick founder and co-editor Felix Dennis (1947-2014).

A recently rediscovered Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) painting has been bought by the Fitzwilliam Museum from dealer Daniel Katz.