Outcry as Anglo-Saxon Inscribed Stone Goes on Sale at Bonhams
The CBA has written to Bonhams about this rare and vulnerable item of sculpture requesting that the lot is withdrawn.
CBA Director Mike Heyworth has written to the auction house Bonhams, requesting that they withdraw this lot from sale in tomorrow’s auction of antiquities and to allow the owner to receive it back without financial penalty.
The section of a cross-shaft is an important example of a rare and vulnerable form of Anglo-Saxon sculpture. Its scholarly and heritage value is recognised through the work of the British Academy-funded Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland.
It is clear from a recent report in The Guardian that the owner did not appreciate its full significance when offering it for sale and now very much regrets this move. There is a significant danger that the cross-shaft will disappear from public access after the sale and this will be a major loss for the Anglo-Saxon heritage of Northamptonshire.
The full text of the CBA letter can be found here.
Janet Gough (Director, Cathedral & Church Buildings Division at the Church of England) also asked Bonhams to withdraw the item from sale as the legal status of the piece is unclear and investigations are ongoing into how and when this piece came to be conveyed to the house in question, and thence into private hands.
UPDATE: Late on 27 April, Bonhams withdrew this lot from sale.
- See this update in The Guardian
- Further uncertainty over the stone’s future, reported in the Peterborough Evening Telegraph
