Joan of Arc For Sale

I hope Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications & the Creative Industries, will be keeping an eye on Sotheby’s sale of British and Irish Art in London on 10 May (CLICK). Some very fine examples of British painting are up for grabs. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's sensuous portrait of Joan of Arc (1864) kissing the blade of her Sword of Deliverance before going into battle is one we don't want leaving the UK. We lost far too many Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces to the USA when the movement fell out of favour with our art critics.