FUNDRAISING campaign to raise £1m to save an important Tudor treasure for the nation has received a boost with £200,000 pledged from the Art Fund.
One of the finest tapestries of the 16th century, which was personally commissioned by Henry VIII, reached a major milestone thanks to the support of a national charity for art.
Saint Paul Directing the Burning of the Heathen Books was designed by Pieter Coecke van Aelst in 1535, at the time Henry VIII broke with the church of Rome.
The 20ft long tapestry, hailed as the ‘Holy Grail of Tudor Tapestry’, was thought to be lost for nearly 200 years when it was rediscovered in a private collection in Spain in 2014.
After the discovery Spain’s ministry of culture imposed an export ban preventing it from leaving the country. An overseas sale will only be permitted if the purchaser is a suitable institution with a historic link to the tapestry.
The Auckland Project’s new Faith Museum, which opened last month, explores 6,000 years of faith and how belief shaped Britain, is hoping to secure £4.m to purchase the tapestry.
A campaign to raise £1m in match funding for a bid of £3m from a national heritage funder, to purchase the tapestry was launched by Auckland Project’s Jonathan Ruffer in June.
He said: “There are two reasons why objects form the fabric of a nation. One is they are exceptional pieces of art; the other is because they have a particular resonance in the story of the nation. Here, both are the case.
“Besides being the holy grail of Tudor tapestry, this tapestry is effectively the birth certificate of the Church of England.”
A Justgiving page was launched and the £200,000 pledge by Art Fund has seen the campaign pass the halfway mark (£561,377). The Auckland Project has until March 2024 to raise £4.m in order to ensure the tapestry’s safe return to Britain.
Mr Ruffer added: “I have a quixotic thought that if people of goodwill were to subscribe £20, the cost of a baptismal certificate (plus £2 P&P) to help buy this original woven certificate of baptism, we’d raise the £1m that we need and we would demonstrate this is something that belongs in Britain, because it is our treasure.”
Anyone who wishes to make a donation should visit https://www.justgiving.com/
campaign/tapestry
