The National Gallery of Australia has insisted it has
a greater claim to two 18th Century paintings by George Stubbs of a dingo and a
kangaroo than a UK museum seeking funds to buy them.
The oil
paintings were "central" to the history of Australian art, said the
gallery's director Dr Ron Radford.
The works are
subject to an export bar that prevents them leaving the UK.
Earlier this
week, the National Maritime Museum in London launched an appeal to
"save" them for the nation.
Their campaign
is supported by naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who said he had "no
doubt" the works should be placed within the museum's collection of
paintings made on Captain Cook's Pacific voyages.
According to
the Australian gallery, however, the fact that they were painted after Cook's
death meant they had a "less prominent" place in the British
navigator's "story".
The Kongouro
from New Holland (The Kangaroo) and Portrait of a Large Dog (The Dingo) were
first shown at London's Royal Academy in 1773.
The paintings,
which Stubbs based on spoken accounts, were notable for bringing the existence
of the animals to the attention of the British public for the first time.
The works were
commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks following his participation on Captain James
Cook's first Pacific voyage (1768-71) aboard HMS Endeavour.
According to Dr
Radford, however, "the case presented by the National Maritime Museum...
is very tenuous".
"These
works belong in Australia's national art collection," he said, describing
the kangaroo as "an icon of Australia's national identity".
The claim that
the marsupial paintings "should be 'saved' from being displayed in the
national art collection of the very country from which the animals
originate" was "not a strong argument," the gallery director
continued.
The Department
for Culture, Media and Sport placed a temporary export bar on the paintings
earlier this year after they were bought by an unnamed party from outside the
UK.
The DCMS
recommended the paintings should not leave the country because they were
"so closely connected with our history and national life" and were of
"outstanding significance for the history of exploration, science [and]
natural history".
The National
Maritime Museum is seeking to raise £1.5 million of public donations to buy and
restore the paintings, which have not left the UK since 1773.
It has already
received a £3.2 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a £200,000
grant from the Art Fund to go towards the acquisition.
In a statement
released on Thursday, the National Gallery of Australia said it had been
"actively" seeking to acquire the works since its official opening in
1982.
A spokesman for
the DCMS declined to confirm that the application for an export licence had
been lodged by the Canberra-based institution.
Source: BBC
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