Government delays export of &pound;6.3m painting

An Academy by Lamplight by Joseph Wright of Derby has been issued with a temporary export ban. The painting which depicts students gathered around a classical marble sculpture, exhibited in 1769, was sold at Sotheby's in December 2017. The ban will now allow a British gallery or museum the opportunity to buy the painting, but the challenge is considerable, as the required sum would be close to £7.5m ($10.23m) to prevent the work leaving the country. Art minister Michael Ellis said “Wright is one of the most pre-eminent painters of the age of enlightenment".

A temporary export ban has been set on a glowing masterpiece by Joseph Wright of Derby, which hit a record for the 18th-century artist when it sold for £6.3m at a Sotheby’s auction in December, almost twice the top estimate.

An Academy by Lamplight, which depicts a group of young art students gathered around a classical sculpture, was an instant hit with the public when Wright first exhibited it in 1769.

A slightly later version is in the Yale Center for British Art in the US, but this one had been in the same private family collection, at Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk, since the 19th century.

Timeline The 10 most expensive works of art sold at auction Show See a gallery of the world's most expensive paintings 15 November 2017 Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi sold for $400 million at Christie’s ($450.3m, including auction house premium) 2 May 2012 One of four versions of The Scream created by Munch and the only one that is privately owned. The painting sold for $119,922,500 30 April 2010 Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) sold at Christie's in New York for $106,482,500 12 January 2010 L’homme qui Marche I (1961) by Alberto Giacometti sold for £65,001,250 ($105,182,398) at Sotheby’s in London 5 May 2004 Picasso’s Boy With a Pipe (1905) sold at Sotheby's in New York for $104,168,000 8 November 2006 Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912)went under the hammer at Christie’s New York and sold for $87,936,000 14 April 2008 Francis Bacon’s Triptych (1976) sold for $85.9m to oligarch Roman Abramovich 12 November 2010 A Chinese 18th century Qianlong dynasty porcelain vase sold for £53,100,000 ($85,921,461) at Bainbridges auction house in London 22 March 2006 Dora Maar au Chat (1941) by Pablo Picasso sold for £51,560,080 ($83,429,503) at Sotheby's in London 15 May 1990 Portrait of Dr Paul Gachet (1890) by Vincent van Gogh sold for $82,500,000 (£50,985,692) at Christie’s in New York Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.

Wright was nicknamed “the painter of light”, renowned for his theatrical effects of night scenes illuminated by candle or lamplight, so the painting is of the type most coveted by collectors.

The government has delayed allowing its export to allow a British gallery or museum the chance to acquire it, but raising the price would be a considerable challenge: including fees they would have to find just under £7.5m.

The export bar could be extended into next year if any institution had a serious chance of raising the money. The biggest public collection is in Derby, the city where Wright was born and spent most of his life, but as a local authority museum it has almost no acquisition funds.

The export bar is imposed by the government on the advice of an expert committee, administered by the Arts Council, which considers art works deemed to be of national importance.

The arts minister, Michael Ellis, called the painting extraordinary. “Wright is one of the most pre-eminent painters of the age of enlightenment. His works help us to better understand the mix of religion and science in this period of huge industrial development.”