UK Bars Sale of Cezanne Work Until August Amid Calls to Preserve It As National Treasure

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United Kingdom has placed a temporary export ban on a small yet historically important landscape by Paul Cezanne to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to come forward and buy it.

Estimated at 10 million pounds ($13 million), "Farm in Normandy, Summer (Hattenville)" marks an important moment in the career of the French post-impressionist painter when his style began shaping into its final form. It is also part of the Samuel Courtauld Collection, which helped form the British taste for international art in the 20th century.

"I hope a UK buyer comes forward so it can be enjoyed by everyone for years to come," Arts Minister Stephen Parkinson said.

The export bar on the 1882 artwork, which is in a private collection, will remain in place through 31 July. The UK arts minister will consider offers from public bodies for less than the recommended price where appropriate, a press release said.

The move was recommended by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, whose member Christopher Baker praised the painting as a bridge between the 19th-century painting and modernism.

"Because of its beauty, significance in the artist's career and role in the wider appreciation of such artistic achievements, it would be a profound misfortune if this beguiling work could not be retained in this country," Baker said.

Notably, Cezanne employed his so-called "constructed brushstroke" to evoke dappled light, shadows and green hues of trees and a meadow, underscoring abstract structures behind nature that later became prominent in the works of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.