A “DOLLAR BATTLE”

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 155, 27 March 1926, Page 22

A “DOLLAR BATTLE”

U.S. MILLIONAIRE AND £lO,OOO PICTURE. A “dollar battle” between an American millionaire and an English buyer for a landscape painting which a British connoisseur wishes to return back to his native county, Norfolk, has ended in New York ;n a victory for the Englishman—at a cost of nearly <£lo.ooo. The picture is Crome’s “Willow Tree,” a Norfolk scene. It was described by George Borrow in “Lavengro.” Tho first record of the sale of the picture was in 1858, when it was bought from the Rev. W. Wilson, of Kirby Bedon, for ,tB. The Rev. J. Holmes afterwards bought it for £lOO, and exhibited it in Norwich in 1860. It then passed to G. Holmes, of Brooke ITn.ll. near Norwich, in 1874, was exhibited nt the Royal Academy about 1808, and was bought by Mr. N. C. Borden, of the United States. Recently Mr. Percy Moore Turner, of the Independent Gallery, Grafton Street. London, was commissioned by a Norwich citizen to get the picture back when it was put up for sale. After a long fight lie has succeeded, and the painting will be returned to Norwich.