Buying a Turner painting is a “once in a generation chance” as Bristol City Council is seeking donations.
The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, will go on sale at an auction next month with a guide price of £300,000 and there is a chance the painting could soon be hung in a Bristol gallery.
JMW Turner painted the Avon Gorge when he was 17 years old in 1792. But the painting had been lost for 150 years until it was discovered during cleaning last year. The council is hoping to raise enough money to bid on the painting, but none of the council’s own money will be spent.
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The painting will go on sale in Sotheby’s on July 2. The plans to raise money and bid on the painting were approved by councillors on the strategy and resources policy committee.
Philip Walker, the council’s head of culture, said: “The painting shows what a talented artist he was already by the age of 17. It also has incredibly strong relevance to Bristol and it would be hard to imagine another artist or another painting that would be more relevant to the city’s story.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to purchase a significant work of art by such a significant artist. The council wouldn’t spend its own funds on this, that would be entirely raised from alternative sources of funding. But the council would be the purchaser at the auction.”
The Rising Squall is in a “good and stable condition”, according to an independent conservation report.
But if the council is successful in its purchase, another conservation expert will assess its condition afterwards.
The painting would be added to the council’s insurance policy for its museums, but this shouldn’t “materially alter” the cost of that policy, according to Mr Walker.
The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery has strict environmental controls, like on temperature and sunlight, to protect paintings and exhibitions.
The Rising Squall would be protected in this way too, and the council could glaze the painting, if it is not already, to add further protection.
Mr Walker added: “The intention would be to put it on display as quickly as possible within the Bristol Museum &d Art Gallery without charging for that. If we have just mounted a public fundraising campaign, then we wouldn’t be wanting to charge for a second time to access it.”
