The Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in England issued a fundraising plea to keep a beloved 15th-century altarpiece from entering a private collection—and likely away from public view.
The Netherlandish altarpiece, known as The Master of the Sherborne Almshouse Triptych, dates back to 1480–90 and is valued up to £3.5 million (around $4.6 million). And that is the exact amount the museum is hoping to raise to acquire the piece before it is auctioned by Sotheby’s in an Old Master evening sale next month and prevent the work from being exported.
“This masterpiece has been described by scholars as ‘exceptionally rare’—not only for its artistic brilliance, but for its remarkable survival through centuries of religious and political upheaval,” the Dorset Museum said on a webpage linking to Crowdfunder. “Now, for the first time in its history, the triptych faces the possibility of being sold into private hands. We are determined to ensure that does not happen.”
The altarpiece depicts five healings of Jesus Christ and was hidden during periods of iconoclastic destruction over the centuries before being rediscovered in St. John’s Almshouse in Sherborne, Dorset, in the 19th century. It has only left the site twice, for an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1923 and another at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2003.
But “with the almshouse trustees now preparing to auction the painting to fund urgently needed new housing,” the Dorset Museum said, “we have a brief window to act. … We are calling on supporters, art lovers, cultural organizations, and the local community to help us protect this extraordinary treasure.”
