The Nationwide Portrait Gallery has raised £25 million which, thanks in big half to a grant of £10m from the Nationwide Heritage Memorial Fund, an Artwork Fund grant of £2.5m, along with an identical quantity from Getty within the U.S., makes up the £50m wanted to amass the portray.

The Nationwide Portrait Gallery and Artwork Fund’s fundraising marketing campaign has been made doable because of a rare collaborative effort, together with:

An distinctive grant of £10m from the Nationwide Heritage Memorial Fund, considered one of its most vital awards for saving a heritage treasure for the UK

An Artwork Fund grant of £2.5m, the most important in its historical past

Main contributions had been additionally obtained from The Portrait Fund, the Deborah Loeb Brice Basis and Julia and Hans Rausing, and assist additionally got here from the Idan and Batia Ofer Household Basis and David & Emma Verey Charitable Belief, in addition to many different beneficiant trusts, foundations, and people.

Donations from over 2,000 Artwork Fund members, Nationwide Portrait Gallery supporters and members of the general public, giving items of all sizes

The shared possession of the work and strategic partnership between the Nationwide Portrait Gallery and Getty is the results of an progressive mannequin of worldwide collaboration that permits and maximizes public entry to the work in perpetuity. The 2 establishments will share the portray for public exhibition, analysis, and conservation care.

The portray will first be exhibited on the Nationwide Portrait Gallery when it reopens on June 22, following a serious transformation challenge and can later will likely be proven at different establishments throughout the UK. Mai will journey periodically between the 2 nations, sharing time equally between them. The primary Getty presentation will likely be in 2026, together with the interval when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Olympic Video games.

Sir Joshua Reynolds’ spectacular Portrait of Mai (Omai) holds a pivotal place in world artwork historical past, depicting the primary Polynesian to go to Britain, and is broadly thought to be the best portrait by considered one of Britain’s best artists. Generally known as “Omai” in England, Mai (ca. 1753-1779) was a local of Raiatea, an island now a part of French Polynesia, who traveled from Tahiti to England with Captain James Prepare dinner. He spent the years 1774–76 in London, the place he was obtained by royalty and the mental elite, and certainly turned one thing of a celeb. Mai returned to his homeland in 1777 and died there two years later.

The Nationwide Portrait Gallery want to thank the previous house owners for his or her co-operation on this course of, and Christie’s for his or her assist within the negotiations.

Help for the marketing campaign additionally got here from main artists Sir Antony Gormley, Rebecca Salter and Richard Deacon and historians Simon Schama, David Olusoga, and Simon Sebag-Montefiore. Artist Elizabeth Peyton created a brand new work, Omai (Afterlife) after Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Portrait of Omai, 1776, 2023, impressed by the portrait.

Dr. Nicholas Cullinan, Director, Nationwide Portrait Gallery, stated: “Reynolds’ majestic Portrait of Mai is by far essentially the most important acquisition the Nationwide Portrait Gallery has ever made, and the most important acquisition the UK has ever made, together with the Titians acquired by the Nationwide Gallery and the Nationwide Galleries of Scotland in 2009 and 2012. I want to thank the two,000 Artwork Fund members and Nationwide Portrait Gallery supporters throughout the UK and the Nationwide Heritage Memorial Fund and Artwork Fund for his or her important and historic grants in addition to the various different beneficiant supporters. This consists of main contributions from the Portrait Fund, Deborah Loeb Brice Basis and Julia and Hans Rausing, and assist from the Idan and Batia Ofer Household Basis and the David and Emma Verey Charitable Belief. Collectively, you might have made such an unprecedented endeavour doable. My thanks additionally to Getty for having the imaginative and prescient to hitch us in an progressive strategic partnership to make sure this uniquely vital portray enters public possession for the primary time, in Reynolds’ three hundredth anniversary 12 months, so its magnificence may be seen and loved by everybody. Heartfelt thanks too to my great colleagues and everybody who labored evening and day to make the inconceivable doable—they’ve carried out one thing extraordinary for all of us.”

Dr. Timothy Potts, Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, stated: “Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai just isn’t solely one of many best masterpieces of British artwork, but in addition essentially the most tangible and visually compelling manifestation of Europe’s first encounters with the peoples of the Pacific islands. The chance for Getty to associate with the Gallery in buying and presenting this work to audiences in Britain and California, and from world wide, represents an progressive mannequin that we hope will encourage others to assume creatively about how main artistic endeavors can most successfully be shared. The myriad inventive, historic, and cultural points that Mai’s portrait raises for Twenty first-century viewers and researchers will bethe start line for a joint analysis challenge led by the Gallery and Getty within the years forward.”

Dr. Simon Thurley CBE, Chair of the Nationwide Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), stated: “I’m completely delighted that we’ve got reached this pivotal second within the journey of Mai. It has been an unbelievable effort of private and non-private fundraising and I’m proud that NHMF has been capable of play such an important function in saving it for the UK because of our grant of £10m—40% of the quantity that the Nationwide Portrait Gallery wanted to lift. The grant is without doubt one of the most substantial awards we’ve got ever given to avoid wasting a nationwide treasure, and is befitting of this masterpiece, by one of many UK’s best artists, because it embodies such nice cultural and historic significance.”

“It’s great information that the UK public, in addition to a wider worldwide viewers because of the partnership acquisition, will now be capable of benefit from the magnificent murals, its fascinating story and complicated themes. NHMF is a crucial supply of funding for our most vital heritage in danger, so it’s extremely thrilling that we’re capable of assist the Nationwide Portrait Gallery to amass Mai, to be on show for all to see. We’re additionally delighted that Mai will later embark on a tour permitting guests from throughout the UK to marvel at its greatness and discover its heritage.”

Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chairman, Artwork Fund, stated: “When an distinctive murals comes up on the market, Artwork Fund stands prepared to assist museums within the UK convey the work right into a public assortment, for everybody to take pleasure in. Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai (Omai) is simply such a portray, and it’s a tribute to the Nationwide Portrait Gallery and Getty’s progressive shared possession mannequin that the portray will now be publicly accessible, ceaselessly. Artwork Fund is delighted to have awarded a grant of £2.5 million—the most important in our 120 12 months historical past—and grateful to the unbelievable generosity of over 2,000 Artwork Fund members, Nationwide Portrait Gallery supporters, people and trusts who swiftly gave to our enchantment. We additionally thank the trustees of the Nationwide Heritage Memorial Fund for his or her important assist in direction of this acquisition, a robust assertion of the significance of bringing this murals into public view within the UK. The collective effort to avoid wasting this portray has been exceptional.”

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, Arts & Heritage Minister, stated: “I want to congratulate the Nationwide Portrait Gallery and Getty on their incredible efforts to make this joint acquisition doable and safe this glorious portray. Because of their work and the export bar course of, it’ll now be capable of be loved by folks throughout the nation for generations to return.”

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England, stated: “The Arts Council is proud to have supported the advice of the Reviewing Committee that this excellent murals ought to proceed to be accessible to the general public within the UK. The collaboration between the Nationwide Portrait Gallery and Getty will imply that will probably be seen in a global context, whereas additionally making certain that we diversify the nationwide assortment and open alternatives for analysis and studying about our nationwide historical past and tradition.”

Sir John Leighton, Director-Normal, Nationwide Galleries of Scotland, stated: “There are numerous nice artistic endeavors related to this nation and its historical past however absolutely solely a small quantity that may be described as really extraordinary. The Reynolds Portrait of Mai (Omai) belongs on this class and now, because of an inspiring and enlightened partnership between the Nationwide Portrait Gallery and Getty, a really extensive nationwide and worldwide viewers will be capable of take pleasure in this excellent portray. That is great information and a trigger for actual celebration.”

Victoria Pomery, Chief Government Officer, The Field, Plymouth stated: “I’m thrilled to listen to that Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai (Omai) has been acquired on this the three hundredth anniversary 12 months of the artist’s delivery. Plymouth has a protracted affiliation with Reynolds who was born in Plympton, now a part of the trendy metropolis, in 1723. Certainly, Reynolds’ first studio was positioned in Devonport, Plymouth. We’re delighted that this vital portrait will likely be shared to locations resembling The Field enabling additional conversations and discussions on Empire, illustration and place and for audiences within the south west and throughout the nation to see and perceive extra about this portray.”

Help from main artists and historians:

Simon Sebag-Montefiore, historian and NPG Trustee:

“I’m simply delighted and proud as a historian and as an NPG trustee that this massively important and delightful masterpiece—vital as Reynold’s best portrait and each as a mirrored image of its personal time and in addition related to our personal—will now be capable of keep within the NPG by means of an progressive deal that itself will likely be a mannequin for the longer term.”

Sir Antony Gormley, artist:

“It’s excellent news that this important work may be proven as a part of our nationwide assortment of portraits. It could be the primary time that the English institution represented a member of a tribal society with dignity and respect. Right here is an alternate manner of being: Mai’s open and fascinating face complimented by his palms; one open to the world in a gesture of giving, the opposite protecting, displaying knuckle tattoos and his naked ft firmly in contact with the earth.”

Richard Deacon, artist and Artwork Fund Trustee:

“The Portrait of Mai is a powerful portrait by Reynolds, on the top of his powers, of a good friend, a portrait he saved on the entrance to his studio for the remainder of his life. That funding for an association for the NPG to retain the portray, in partnership with Getty, has been profitable is incredible information. With out Reynolds, the historical past of British artwork can be impoverished, with out this portray our appreciation of Reynolds would have been diminished.”

Rebecca Salter, President, Royal Academy of Arts:

“It’s great that future generations will now be capable of respect the facility and great thing about this uncommon portrait. What higher solution to mark the three hundredth anniversary of Sir Joshua Reynolds’ delivery this 12 months?”