Museum acquisitions

The Louvre Museum in Paris has raised more than £8m to buy a jewel-encrusted Book of Hours.

Museums in the UK have been selling off their collections and have been unable to buy new works of art due to funding issues, a “deeply depressing” report has revealed.

The British Museum has saved for the nation an 18th century drawing by Austrian Romantic artist Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839) after it was sold at auction from the estate of art critic Brian Sewell.

London dealers Agnews and Rafael Valls have jointly sold a 17th century portrait of a woman who suffered from a rare congenital condition to the Wellcome Collection.

A collection of Iron Age gold jewellery is to go on display at Stoke-on-Trent’s Potteries Museum & Art Gallery after fundraising hit the £325,000 target.

Recovered from a US buyer, three historic cannons are returning to Southend for a new exhibition.

Four Old Master paintings from the collection of the late president of TEFAF, Willem Baron van Dedem, have been donated to the National Gallery.

In covering art and antiques, it is easy to overlook the role of the collector in among the people who created objects in the first place, and of course the dealers and auctioneers who sell them. But one collector, the late David Brown, is the subject of a show coming up in Winchester.

Pallant House Gallery in Chichester has now permanently acquired the painting 'China Dogs in a St Ives Window' by Christopher Wood (1901-30) after a successful fundraising drive.

A record amount of ‘treasure’ has been found in Britain’s fields and ditches by members of the public in the past year.

The oldest surviving music hall in the world, Wilton's, has given its complete archive to the V&A, saving the history of its eclectic performing arts at the venue for posterity.

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.