PHIL MILLER and JULIA HORTON The race to raise £50m to save one of the treasures of the National Gallery of Scotland for the country received a boost last night when the Scottish Government pledged significant funding towards the total.
Although the government declined to put a figure on the pledge, sources suggest it is large enough to form a "strong basis" for the NGS to buy Titian's Diana and Actaeon from the Duke of Sutherland.
Last night Tracey Emin, the leading contemporary artist whose retrospective exhibition is currently at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, suggested her own novel way of raising the money - if everyone in Britain donates £1, the paintings could be paid for.
Yesterday it was revealed that the Duke, who owns 27 key paintings in the collections of the National Galleries, has offered Diana and Actaeon to the NGS for £50m as the first part of a deal that will help guarantee that the rest of his works, known as the Bridgewater Collection, remains on the walls of the gallery on The Mound in Edinburgh.
In four years, if the bid for Diana and Actaeon is successful, the galleries, and their partners the National Gallery in London, will have to find another £50m to purchase another work from the collection, Diana and Callisto.
If both these bids are successful, the remaining paintings will stay in Scotland for another 21 years. If the deals fall through, it is likely that the Duke of Sutherland will sell some of his works.
The Bridgewater Collection is the most important private collection of Old Master paintings on loan to an institution in the UK. It includes masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt and Poussin.
The pictures have been on continuous public view in the NGS since the collection was placed there in 1945 by the then 5th Earl of Ellesmere, later 6th Duke of Sutherland.
A statement from the Scottish Government last night confirmed: "The National Galleries of Scotland has been given a significant funding pledge from Scottish ministers around which to build its fundraising campaign. A precise figure will be confirmed in due course."
It is understood that in London, the Westminster government and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport are also calculating how much money they can donate.
Ms Emin said she had rushed to see the Titian paintings again yesterday as news broke of their possible sale. She also pledged to make a donation herself if need be.
She said: "I read the paper this morning and thought I've got to go and see the Titians'. It's not just about these paintings. How can this country go to war and spend money on that kind of atrocity, meanwhile we have got these paintings which pacify people, which are about beauty potentially going to other countries?
"The money is there. We have got the money for sport. The government should pay. If not, the nation should buy them, it would be a pound each. The price of a packet of biscuits."
She added: "I came running in to look at them thinking Crikey, they might not be here any more'. They were not that influential on my work but I know for a fact that a lot of artists who I have been influenced by have been influenced by Titian."
She said that she "really liked" Titian's Diana and Actaeon and found it "sexy".
Other renowned artists have also contacted the national galleries with messages of support and concern.
Scottish artist Alison Watt said: "I simply can't imagine these paintings, which I have known and loved my whole life, not being on show in Scotland."
John Leighton, the director general of the NGS, said: "There is a huge amount of interest, and there will continue to be.
"By chance, Tracey was here and she said some interesting and encouraging things. I think in the coming weeks there will be other artists who will come behind it the campaign to save the paintings too.
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