Klesch Collection acquires Botticelli under UK export ban

The Klesch Collection has purchased Sandro Botticelli's 'The Virgin and Child Enthroned' (1470s) for £10.2 million, preventing its export from the UK. The painting will be loaned to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for three years. The UK government imposed an export bar in May 2025, with a recommended price of £9,960,000 plus VAT. The work was sold at Sotheby's London in late 2024 for £9.7 million with fees. Ashmolean director Xa Sturgis welcomed the acquisition, noting the Klesch Collection's commitment to lending to public institutions. Founded by A. Gary and Dr. Anita Klesch in 2014 with a set of Four Seasons by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the collection focuses on 15th- to 17th-century European art, including works by Caravaggio, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Rubens. In 2023, the collection acquired a Gerrit Dou painting at Christie's London for $7 million with fees. The Botticelli painting was previously housed in the Convent of San Giuliano in Florence, later moved to a chapel near farmhouses, and sold by the Graziani family in 1903 to dealer Elia Volpi. Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd (Lady Wantage) bought it in 1904 for £5,000, and it had been at Betterton House, Berkshire, since 1944.