This study for Brueghel the Younger’s Procession to Calvary is the subject of an appeal by a British provincial town to save the work from going on the art market, according to the Telegraph:

The Procession to Calvary, painted in 1602 by the Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel the Younger, is the star attraction at Nostell Priory in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where it has hung for over 200 years. Its owner, Lord St Oswald, is selling the work to fund restoration of the estate.

The Art Fund kickstarted the public appeal yesterday with a £500,000 donation – one of the largest grants in the charity’s history. “This is a magnificent painting and the thought of it being lost is something we don’t want to contemplate,” said Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund. […] The final version, painted in 1607, sold to a private collector for £5.2 million at Sotheby’s in 2006. The Nostell painting would likely fetch a similar sum on the open market – the £2.7 million figure is a result of the conditional exemption tax incentive, whereby inheritance tax is not paid if an owner agrees to keep an item in the UK and place it on public display.

Save this Painting (Telegraph)