Acquisiition of the year: The National Gallery, London The Madonna of the Pinks

Apollo, Dec, 2004

The National Gallery, London The Madonna of the Pinks by Raphael (1483-1520), c. 1506-1507.

Oil on fruitwood panel, 29 x 23 cm. Purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, the American Friends of the National Gallery and private donors

The Madonna of the Pinks is the acquisition of the year for more than its intrinsic quality. For any museum to buy a painting by Raphael is of course an extraordinary achievement. Public support for the National Gallery's campaign to acquire it was stimulated by the romantic circumstances of its rediscovery in 1991 by Nicholas Penny, then curator of Italian art at the National Gallery, in the Duke of Northumberland's collection at Alnwick Castle. The Duke's sale of the painting to the J. Paul Getty Museum (it was not offered first to the National Gallery, despite having been on loan there for over a decade) prompted an export stop, whereupon the Gallery raised the 22 million [pounds sterling] price with the help of 11.5 million [pounds sterling] from the Heritage Lottery Fund, proving that the Gallery could successfully compete for paintings at the highest level and that the HLF was prepared to fund such acquisitions, both of which seemed doubtful when the Duke announced the sale.

British Museum, London Ereshkigal?, Babylonian (central Iraq), 1800-1750 BC.

Terracotta relief, 49.5 x 37 cm. Purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery, Fund, the British Museum Friends, the National Art Collections Fund, the Friends of the Ancient Near East, The Sir Joseph Hotung Charitable Settlement and The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust.

This large plaque, probably from a shrine, may depict Ereshkigal, who ruled over the underworld.

Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, London Figure of Buddha Sakyamoni, Indian, Gupta period, late 6th/early 7th century.

Copper alloy, ht 35.5 cm. Purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, the British Museum's Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund, the Friends of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and private donors.

The first Gupta-style standing bronze Buddha to enter a British collection, this very rare statue is also the first joint purchase by the British Museum and V&A.

It was designed for an elevated position on an altar and, on occasion, for processions.

British Museum, London Flourspan cup, Roman, 1st century AD.

Fluorspan, 13.5 x 9.5cm. Purchased with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund, with additional funding from the British Museum Friends and the Caryatid Fund.

This cup was probably discovered by a Croatian soldier in a Roman tomb on the Turco-Syrian frontier during World War I together with the Crawford Cup, the only other known fluorspar vessel, also owned by the British Museum.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio Apollo Sauroktonos, Greek, ?4th/3rd century BC. Bronze, ht 150 cm.

The figural type of Apollo Sauroktonos ('the lizard slayer') was introduced by Praxiteles. This life-size figure is the only known bronze version to survive from antiquity, and, although its precise date is still being investigated, it is not impossible that it is by Praxiteles himself. The laurel tree in which the god finds the lizard is lost but his left hand, part of his forearm and the lizard survive detached from the figure.

Technical tests suggest that the statue was excavated more than a century ago (the base dates from at least the 19th century); it came to light as a garden ornament on a private estate in the former East Germany in the early 1990s.

Musee du Louvre, Paris Horses head, Greek, late 6th century BC.

White marble, 53 x 62 cm.

Formerly in the celebrated collection of the dealer Felix Bienamine Feuardent (1819-1907), this exceptionally fine Parian marble Archaic Greek fragment was purchased by the Louvre for 2.45 [euro] million after the Minister of Culture imposed an export ban the day before its sale by Feuardent's heirs at Drouot in the autumn.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Head of St John the Baptist on a Salver, English, 15th century.

Alabaster relief, traces of polychrome and gilding, 29 x 23.5 cm.

Purchased with the Boscawen Fund and grants from the National Art Collections Fund and the Museums, Libraries and Archives/ Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund. M.2-2004. Photo: Daniel Katz Ltd.

Sculptured heads of the decapitated John the Baptist were used for private devotion in the late middle ages. The earliest reference to them is in 1432 in Nottingham, the centre of England's alabaster sculpture industry, where this example was probably made.

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth The Judgement of Paris by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), c. 1512-14.

Oil on panel, 43.2 x 32.4 cm.

This is the first of several versions of the subject by Cranach and survives in unusually good condition. The classical inspiration evident in the figure of the central goddess reflects the influence of both Durer and Jacopo de' Barbari, who preceded Cranach as court painter to the Elector of Saxony in Wittenberg.