A painting by Botticelli at risk of leaving the UK will stay in the country after a British private collection acquired the Renaissance masterpiece. The Virgin and Child Enthroned (1470s) was bought by the Klesch Collection, which will loan the painting to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for three years, confirmed a collection spokesperson.
The UK government placed an export bar on the Botticelli painting, valued at £10.2m, in May 2025. The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport said that the painting had a recommended price of £9,960,000 (plus VAT of £272,000, which can be reclaimed by an eligible institution). The work was sold at Sotheby’s London in late 2024 for £9.7m (with fees).
Xa Sturgis, the director of the Ashmolean Museum, says in a statement: “The Ashmolean warmly welcomes this acquisition of a painting by one of the most important artists in the Western tradition, and we’re so pleased that it will remain in the UK. We recognise the value of the Klesch Collection’s commitment to lending works to public institutions.”
Founders A. Gary and Dr. Anita Klesch started the Klesch Collection with the acquisition of a set of Four Seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo in 2014. The collection of 15th-to-17th-century European art, which also includes works by Caravaggio, Sofonisba Anguissola and Rubens, is regularly loaned to museums and institutions worldwide. In 2023, a work by Gerrit Dou was sold at Christie’s London to the collection for $7m (with fees).
In an interview with Tefaf in 2020, Anglo American industrialist Gary Klesch said: “My wife is an expert in the field, as she is an art historian, and I am an amateur with passion. Together we began collecting soon after we were married. Our first acquisitions were by 20th-century artists, but over the years our focus began to shift towards 16th- and 17th-century paintings.”
The Botticelli painting was housed in the Convent of San Giuliano in Florence in the early 19th century, and was later transported to a small chapel attached to a group of farmhouses in a nearby village. It then passed into the family of Giovanni Magherini Graziani, who sold it in November 1903 to the Italian dealer, Elia Volpi.
Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd (Lady Wantage) bought the work in May 1904 for £5,000. The Botticelli painting had been kept at Betterton House, near Wantage, Berkshire, since 1944.
