Italian masterpiece destined for U.S. unless buyer can be found in Britain

LONDON, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- A search started Saturday to find a buyer willing to buy a 16th century masterpiece for 24.5 million pounds (30.6 million U.S. dollars) to keep the painting in Britain.

The work, The Virgin and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen and the Infant Saint John the Baptist, by the Renaissance painter Parmigianino, will be exported to the United States unless the money can be found to keep it in Britain, its home for 250 years.

British culture minister Matt Hancock has placed a temporary export bar on the painting.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) described the painting as an exceptional artwork and a rare example of a religious easel painting from the last decade of the artist's short career.

It is regarded as one of the finest examples by Parmigianino remaining in private hands and is the only late religious painting by the artist in the United Kingdom.

The extraordinary work has been in Britain for nearly 250 years and was one of the first Parmigianinos to be bought by a British collector.

Acquired from the Barberini Collection in Rome, it has passed through the collections of three of the country's major collectors of Italian Renaissance painting.

The Italian artist, Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, but commonly, as Parmigianino, was born in 1503 and died in 1549 aged just 37.

Last fall the J. Paul Getty Museum announced in Los Angeles its intention to acquire Virgin with Child, St. John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene, subject to winning an export license.