A major battle has been launched to save the fourteenth-century Macclesfield Psalter from export from England

A major battle has been launched to save the fourteenth-century Macclesfield Psalter from export from England. One of the most remarkable art historical discoveries of recent years, the illuminated manuscript came to light when the Earl of Macclesfield sold the library from Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire at Sotheby's. The psalter--entirely unknown to scholarship--was bought by the J.Paul Getty Museum for 1.685 million [pounds sterling] in June. The Getty outbid the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, which remains determined to secure this outstanding example of East Anglian art for what the museum's director, Duncan Robinson, calls its 'natural home'.

Before the sale, the National Art Collections Fund had offered the museum 400,000 [pounds sterling] towards the purchase, but the Fitzwilliam was thwarted by the Heritage Lottery Fund's refusal to provide support. Granting of the Getty's export licence has been deferred to 10 November (with a likely extension to 10 February 2005) to give the museum the opportunity to match the purchase price. The NACF has raised its contribution to 500,000 [pounds sterling], and its director, David Barrie, has called on the HLF to reconsider its refusal to help acquire an object of 'unique importance'. His campaign is strongly supported by Mark Jones, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who told APOLLO that if the psalter goes abroad 'we have to ask ourselves whether the export and licensing system is working properly to enable us to secure the most important works of art for the country'.

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