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3 unusual facts about The Art Fund


Lyme Caxton Missal

The missal was purchased in 2008 by the National Trust at a cost of £465,000, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Art Fund, and other organisations.

The Art Fund

Art critic Frank Rutter said it made him "boil with rage" that the Fund had spent thousands of pounds on Old Master paintings, some of which he considered of dubious merit or condition, but "would not contribute one half penny" to his appeal in 1905 to buy the first Impressionist painting for the National Gallery, although it welcomed the prestige of presenting the painting, Eugène Boudin's The Entrance to Trouville Harbour, the following year.

In 2006 it was caught out when it was discovered that the Amarna Princess, purportedly an ancient Egyptian sculpture, was actually a forgery by Shaun Greenhalgh.



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