What Are the 25 Most Important Paintings Owned Privately in Britain?

A list of works said to be Great Britain's 25 most important paintings in private hands has been published by today's Daily Telegraph of London. This masterpiece roster has been compiled in connection with a campaign by Lord Howarth, a former arts minister, to get the British government "to revive its secret Paramount List--a list of works of art so important the Government would step in to buy them for public collections if they ever came on the market."

Owned, for the most part, by dukes, earls and lords, the 25 works include Rembrandts, Van Dycks, Poussins and Canalettos, among others. One painting, Leonardo's "Madonna of the Yarnwinder," was stolen and is still missing.

Nigel Reynolds reports:

Lord Howarth told The Daily Telegraph he wanted to protect objects of "supreme importance" as a matter of urgency. Experts should prepare a small national inventory of no more than 15 paintings and a small handful of sculptures and pieces of furniture that the Treasury would guarantee to buy for the nation at market prices.

In parallel, the latest edition of Apollo, the specialist art history magazine, will publish a list tomorrow of what it considers the 25 most important Old Masters in private ownership in the country.

When it comes to patrimony patriotism, what's good for the Greeks and Romans is good for the Anglo-Saxons, it seems.