Will
Waspe (;') The Spectator probably saved you (as a taxpayer) a little money last week with that 'Notebook' item designed to discourage the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art from sanctioning any profit to a foreign buyer if Parmigianino's The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine' had had to be 'saved for the nation' following the Christie's auction on Friday.
Well circulated and keenly discussed in the art world, this discreet paragraph proved a sufficient warning that this was one occasion when the, public purse was unlikely to be taken for a dealer's ride and, at the sale,. significantly, no bids were offered by the US agents (previously prominent in this area of art operations) who had been hanging around town ready to move in.
In the event, the picture failed to make its reserve figure and was bought later by the National Gallery. What might otherwise have happened — with insiders
. knowing of the virtual certainty of an export veto followed by a state purchase — is that the bidding would have gone through the roof; but when the profit became questionable, interest' evaporated.
One-night stand.
Latest of the town's drama critics to submit a play of his own to the attention‘ of colleagues is the Fincinci0 Times's B. A. Young, who is-1author of a piece called CabinetPudding. It's being given a one-off 'reading' at the Young Vic, with the Young Vic's director Frank Dunlop not only providing the stage and the company but actually taking a part in. it himself. This is not the sort of occasion that ordinarily attracts manv reviewers, but watch them throng this time.
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