Britain Blocks a Picasso From Traveling

By RANDY KENNEDY

Too big to fail? What about too important to sell?

The British government has placed a temporary export ban on a privately owned Picasso “Blue Period” painting, saying that the work â€" made in 1901 and on loan for decades to the National Gallery in London from the collection of a wealthy family â€" has become too important to Britain's national heritage to allow it to be sold and to leave the country.

Reuters reported that in March Christie's auction house confirmed that it had been instructed by the owners to find a buyer for a private sale of the painting, titled “Child With a Dove.”

Edward Vaizey, Britain's culture minister, said on Friday that he was preventing the work from leaving the country until Dec. 16, and, if a serious attempt to meet the asking price was made by a private buyer or institution outside Britain, until June 16, 2013, according to Reuters.
“This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the painting in the United Kingdom,” the culture ministry said in a statement. British law allows for such export bans and provides mechanisms to give public institutions a chance to buy works at less than the market price.
Earlier this month, an important Manet painting bought by a collector outside Britain was likewise prevented from leaving and was later sold to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.