Export Licences

A dozen items deemed national treasures were bought by institutions between May 2018 and April 2020 with a value of £7.6m, according to the latest report.

A rare Renaissance roundel has been temporarily blocked from export by the UK government in the hope a buyer in the UK will emerge.

A £2m pocket watch once owned by George III has been temporarily blocked from export to give a UK institution the chance to purchase it.

A group of hand-drawn Armada maps depicting a key moment in England’s history have been saved after a fundraising campaign by the Royal Navy museum.

An export block on Death of Cleopatra by Henri de Triqueti, an ivory sculpture with British royal connections, has been announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy hopes to raise £600,000 to stop the export of a group of hand-drawn Armada maps to an overseas buyer.

A group of 10 drawings that depict the Elizabethan naval battle have been temporarily prevented from being exported in the hope an institutional buyer can raise funds to keep them in the UK.

The owner of a pair of Celtic hounds has been temporarily prevented from exporting the sculptures by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

A harpsichord that was sold at The Canterbury Auction Galleries in 2018 to a US buyer and later barred from export by the government has been saved for the nation by Gainsborough’s House museum.

A new museum in Plymouth has acquired a ‘colossal and extraordinary grotesque grinning crab’ by the Martin Brothers after fundraising to keep the sculpture in the UK.

A sledge and flag that were taken on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1907-09 British Antarctic Expedition have been temporarily blocked from export in the hope of finding a UK buyer.