Holbein's "Duchess of Milan" will not leave the National Gallery.
The National Art Collections Fund, to which the picture was offered for 072,000, has obtained the whole of this very large sum save some 26,500, which is still to be collected. Those who direct and control the National Art Collections Fund are to be most heartily congratulated on this most remarkable achievement. That they were able to accom- plish the apparently impossible was due to the splendid generosity and public spirit of a lady who gave 240,000. The lady in question desires that her name should not be known for the present. It should be mentioned that though the option to purchase the picture expired on Monday, Messrs. Colnaghi courteously extended that option for a few days, with the happy result above mentioned. It is understood that had the money not been found here, the picture would have passed to Mr. Henry C. Prick, the Pittsburg steel magnate. We cannot leave the subject without expressing our very great regret at the unjust things which have been said of the Duke of Norfolk for selling his picture, and at the wild and discourteous language used in some quarters in regard to the picture falling into the hands of an American millionaire. If the picture was going to leave this country, we would far rather that it should have gone to America than to any part of the Continent. No one has a better right to buy English pictures than the other half of the English- speaking race who share our historical traditions. Are we not, as Carlyle said, all subjects of King Shakespeare ? We may add that contributions to make good the remaining Z6,500 may be addressed to the secretary, at the offices of the National Art Collections Fund, 47 Victoria Street, S.W.
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