29/11/2001

The Manchester Art Gallery has acquired the brass lantern featured in William Holman Hunt's (1827-1910) painting The Light of the World for $ 73,400 (€ 82,930). The UK museum had tried to buy it in November at Bonhams in London but the work sold to an anonymous private collector. Virginia Tandy, the director of the Manchester Art Gallery, said that the collector agreed to sell the lantern to the gallery adding it will be on display next to the painting in May 2002. The painting is currently kept at Keble College, Oxford University. The 19th century decorative iron gas lamp, commissioned by William Holman Hunt and made by William Hacking in 1852, had a top-end estimate of $ 21,240 (€ 24,430) at Bonhams in November. (Andrew Moore)