Fanny Claus Ban

This uninspiring painted sketch by Edouard Manet, Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus (1868) - a preparatory study for Le Balcon, which hangs in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris (CLICK) - is subject to a UK government export ban. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has launched a campaign to buy it for £7.8m (CLICK). Its sale price to an anonymous foreign buyer is £28.35m, but HM Gov. is prepared to wave the £20.5m tax that would be raised by a private sale (title link). Don't wave it, Gov. We need the money more than we need another feeble Impressionist study by Manet.