THE centrepiece collection of the National Galleries of Scotland could be broken up unless it can raise £100 million to buy two Old Master paintings.
The 7th Duke of Sutherland, owner of 28 Renaissance masterworks which have hung in Edinburgh for 60 years, has decided to sell major works to "rebalance" his family's assets.
But he has offered the National Galleries a deal: if it buys two Titia
ns for £100 million, the collection will stay in Scotland for the next 21 years.
John Leighton, the director-general of the galleries, described the situation as both a crisis and an opportunity. He said it could secure the future of the famed 200-year-old Bridgewater collection of works by Titian, Raphael and Rembrandt for a new generation – or see significant works put up for grabs to collectors across the world.
Losing the Bridgewater paintings would be "like the Uffizi without its Botticellis, the Louvre without its Mona Lisa", Mr Leighton said. "Whereas our Michelin rating would be 'must see', we would fall down the ratings to 'not worth a detour'.
The Bridgewater collection of 27 Old Master paintings and one Rubens drawing was put together by the Earl of Bridgewater in the late 17th century. Passed down to the Sutherland family two centuries ago, it was brought to Edinburgh for safekeeping during the Second World War and has stayed here ever since.
It was credited with turning the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) from a small-scale collection into a world player. But staff have always feared for a collection that depended on the owner's goodwill – and is now thought to be worth more than £1 billion.
The deal the NGS has been offered involves buying Titian's Diana and Actaeon for £50 million by 31 December. The galleries would then have to buy a second Titian – Diana and Callisto – for a similar sum four years later. Both purchases would be made jointly with the National Gallery in London. The deal, cast as a bargain-basement price, would secure the loan of all the paintings for the Scottish galleries for the next 21 years, although the two jointly owned paintings would alternate between Edinburgh and London on a five-year cycle.
If the deal falls through, however, the Sutherland family is set to take the Titians or other major works to the open market, saying they will pursue "all options as an owner".
The NGS stressed it would be getting the Titians at a bargain price, with the respected Art Newspaper saying the pair could fetch £300 million on the open market.
No immediate reason was apparent for the 68-year-old duke's decision to sell, but he has two sons, who are both married with children of their own, and there was speculation that inheritance tax planning could be a motive.
The duke's non-art wealth, including estates in the Scottish Borders and East Anglia, has been estimated at £30 million. By contrast, the Bridgewater paintings are estimated by the Art Newspaper to be worth more than £1 billion – even without the two Titians, considered the finest works.
The duke's spokesman said the collection had "grown in value to the point where it is prudent to review the holding in terms of the balance of the family's overall assets". He added that it was "sensible" to sell part of it, with the Titians offered to the nation at below market price.
He went on: "There is the prospect he would sell paintings on the open market. It might be these, it might be others. If the deal doesn't come off, he retains all his options as an owner."
The Bridgewater collection also includes two Raphaels, a Rembrandt self-portrait, four Titians, a Rubens, a Tintoretto, and Poussin's famous Seven Sacraments, and they have a room of their own in the National Gallery.
In 1984, the NGS bought four paintings from the collection.
In 2003, when the 6th Duke of Sutherland died, the galleries acquired Titian's famous Venus Anadyomene for £11 million, which was sold partly to offset inheritance tax.
For decades, gallery bosses have assiduously cultivated relations with the Sutherland family. But never before has a major sale been threatened.
The Bridgewater collection was considered of such importance to Britain that incoming prime ministers were traditionally briefed on its contents.
First shown in public in London in 1806, it transformed the standing of the National Galleries when it arrived in Edinburgh in 1945.
Mr Leighton said: "Say we fail, then they will be sold. I can't speak for the duke – I can't say which works will be sold – but the decision has been made to sell a significant quantity."
He said that, while £50 million was a huge sum, the duke was offering "extremely generous terms" on a deal for "children and grandchildren".
It would be hard, but not impossible, to secure the "once in a century" deal, he said. But if the 31 December deadline was not met, "we are away from the table and out of the room".
Mr Leighton insisted the two Titians were arguably among the greatest paintings in the world and that the duke was offering a "substantial discount" in a private treaty sale that would carry tax relief.
Nicholas Penny, the director of the National Gallery in London, said there was no greater private collection of art. He went on: "The price for the Titians is extraordinarily advantageous for us. We've really got a lot of time. It doesn't mean all the money has to be in their pocket by then."
Martin Bailey, of the Art Newspaper, said: "It's the Renaissance collection that's at the heart of the National Galleries of Scotland collection, and without the Sutherland, the heart is torn out. It's difficult to imagine it happening, but it could.
"It puts the National Gallery of Scotland in a very difficult position.But loans cannot go on for ever, and public galleries have to react accordingly."
Any deal of this scale would typically bring together UK and Scottish Government funding, lottery funding, tax write-offs, and gallery and private funders.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Scottish ministers are determined to do everything they can to ensure this world-class collection remains on view for the enjoyment of the public in this country."
The NGS has two other multimillion pound projects on its hands, with the D'Offay Collection of contemporary art and the overhaul of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Priceless collection of Old Masters is finest in the worldTHE Bridgewater collection has a central place in UK and Scottish art history. It is considered the greatest private collection of Old Masters in the UK and probably the world.
The collection of Titians, Poussins and Raphaels was bought in the 1790s by the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater from the French Orleans collection.
The paintings were among the first privately owned Old Masters in history made accessible to a wider British public. Visitors were allowed to see them on certain days in Bridgewater House in London from as early as 1806.
When the childless Duke of Bridgewater died, they passed to his nephew's second son, who became the 1st Duke of Sutherland.
A century later, in 1922, the British government compiled the first secret list of "paramount" paintings that "under no circumstances should be allowed to leave British shores".
High among them were Titian's Diana and Actaeon. From that date, Bridgewater paintings featured high on every list of the most important artworks in Britain, with six works on an official 1933 list of the most valuable paintings to the country.
The collection includes Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, aged 51; Nicolas Poussin's Seven Sacraments, and an eighth work, Moses Striking the Rock; four Titians; a Rubens painting and drawing; a Tintoretto; a Van Dyke; and a Veronese.
In 1945, 33 works from the collection were lent to the National Galleries of Scotland by the 6th Duke of Sutherland. Housing them transformed the NGS's status from provincial to international.
In 1984, the NGS bought four of the loaned paintings, by Lotto, Tintoretto, Dou and Steen, for £2 million. In 2003, following the duke's death in 2000, the NGS bought Titian's Venus Anadyomene for £11.6 million in cash, with a tax write-off.
"They hang there serene and supreme," said the National Galleries director-general, John Leighton. "It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of these works in terms of art history."
The popular modern Scottish painter John Bellany said of the Bridgewater collection: "I have loved and admired these great paintings since I was an art student in Edinburgh. I go and stand in front of each of them for half an hour and my knees turn to jelly."
'Imbalance' in assets leads to rethink on 60-year-old loan to Scots galleryTHE 7th Duke of Sutherland fell 44 places in the Sunday Times Rich List this year, to joint 357th richest person in Britain, with an estimated fortune of £230 million.
The duke also owns a large collection of antiques and jewellery. The list halved the value of the duke's assets to allow for tax, putting its estimated value at nearer £400 million.
Francis Ronald Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland, inherited his title from his uncle, John Sutherland Egerton.
But any estimates of his wealth hang on prices in the art market, which have wildly spiralled. By some estimates the Bridgewater art collection, in his family for two centuries, would now be worth well over £1 billion on the open market.
The Duke of Sutherland owns 12,000 acres in East Anglia and the Borders, including Mertoun House near Melrose, which accounts for the £30 million part of the fortune.
It is a tiny amount compared with the paintings, which have been on loan for 60 years, with insurance and security costs met, and inheritance tax avoided but bringing no financial gain, and it is this "imbalance" in the duke's assets that is driving a sale.
"Over the years, the Bridgewater Collection has grown in value to the point where it is prudent to review the holding in terms of the balance of the family's overall assets," said a spokesman for the duke yesterday. "It does now seem sensible to consider the sale of some part of this collection, and the duke and his family would very much hope that it could be acquired by the nation."
The 6th Duke of Sutherland died in 2000, aged 85. The family's wealth had already shifted from landholding to art, but with the Bridgewater Collection then estimated at only £120 million.
The paintings had been inherited from the third and last Duke of Bridgewater, whose estate passed to the descendants of his sister, Louisa Egerton, who married the 1st Duke of Sutherland's father.
The 6th duke sold many of the paintings, but kept the older classics.
Despite selling Bridgewater House in London and retiring from metropolitan life, the former Duke of Sutherland kept a keen interest in the family hobby of horse racing.
Upon his death, Francis Egerton became the 7th Duke of Sutherland and 6th Earl of Ellesmere.
He was also faced with large death duties. He eventually sold Titian's Venus Anadyomene to the Scottish gallery for £11.6 million, with another £8.4 million being offset against the tax. This satisfied the Inland Revenue, and Britain's greatest collection of Old Masters was allowed to remain in Edinburgh.
BEN BAILEY 