Fanny Saved

The export ban on Edouard Manet's Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus (1868) ran out today. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford reports that it has raised the £7.83m needed to buy the painting (CLICK). Why The Ashmolean and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey wanted this painting to remain in the UK is anyone's guess. It has nothing to do with British heritage and isn't of "outstanding cultural importance". It's merely a preparatory sketch of Fanny Claus for Manet's finished painting Le Balcon, which hangs in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris (CLICK). What about all the Turners, Constables and Pre-Raphaelites that are being flogged to foreigners? They are British heritage. Heard of them, Ed?