Alistair Hardaker | Image: The Black Prince by Michael Rysbrack (Arts Council England)
DCMS defers export licence until February, giving institutions time to raise the capital for the marble bust.
A marble bust of Edward the Black Prince by Flemish sculptor Michael Rysbrack has been placed under a temporary export bar in the hope it can be saved for the nation.
A temporary export bar has been placed on The Black Prince, a bust of Prince Edward of Woodstock (1330-1376) by Michael Rysbrack, with a recommended price of £496,044.51.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport hopes that a UK gallery or institution will step forward to acquire the work, which dates from around 1735. It said the bust was part of a series of eighteenth-century depictions of the Black Prince that came to define how his image was subsequently presented. The department added that a private individual could also purchase the bust and donate it to the nation.
The decision to defer an export licence follows advice from the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest.
Edward, the son of King Edward III, was an extraordinary medieval military commander during the Hundred Years War and won major victories, including the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Rysbrack did much of his most famous work in England, where he was renowned for portrait busts and architectural decorations. The 84cm-high bust has been copied countless times and has become the accepted image of the historical figure.
The Reviewing Committee said that the bust met the first and third Waverley criteria for its outstanding connection with our history and national life and its outstanding significance to the study of 18th-century British sculpture and its use in political propaganda, royal patronage and positioning.
Heritage Minister Baroness Twycross said the sculpture “still defines how we imagine this legendary figure in British history.”
“For nearly three hundred years it has shaped how we tell the story of our medieval history and I hope that in a public gallery in the UK it can tell that story much more powerfully for many more years to come.”
Stuart Lochhead, RCEWA committee member, said the sculpture “still defines how we imagine this legendary figure in British history.”
“For nearly three hundred years it has shaped how we tell the story of our medieval history and I hope that in a public gallery in the UK it can tell that story much more powerfully for many more years to come.”
The decision on the export licence application will be deferred until 5 February 2027. At the end of the initial deferral period, there will be a 15-business-day consideration window for any formal offer to purchase the bust at the recommended price of £496,044.51 (plus VAT of £9,920.89). A second deferral period of four months will follow if an Option Agreement is signed.
