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William Holman Hunt (English, 1827-1910), 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil,' completed in 1868 and based on a scene from a John Keats poem. The Delaware Art Museum has consigned the painting to auction at Christie's.

Delaware Art Museum announces its first artwork to be sold

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
William Holman Hunt (English, 1827-1910), 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil,' completed in 1868 and based on a scene from a John Keats poem. The Delaware Art Museum has consigned the painting to auction at Christie's.
William Holman Hunt (English, 1827-1910), ‘Isabella and the Pot of Basil,’ completed in 1868 and based on a scene from a John Keats poem. The Delaware Art Museum has consigned the painting to auction at Christie’s.

WILMINGTON, Del. – The Board of Trustees of the Delaware Art Museum announced today that the Pre-Raphaelite painting Isabella and the Pot of Basil by William Holman Hunt (1827–1910) will be sold in London through Christie’s auction house at its June 17 auction of Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite, and British Impressionist Art.

The Museum purchased Isabella and the Pot of Basil in 1947 using general art acquisition funds. This is the first of up to four works of art that will be sold over the next several months.

The Museum’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously on March 26, 2014, to deaccession and sell up to four works of art from the museum’s 12,500-object collection. The funds generated from the sale, projected to be $30 million, will repay the full balance of the museum’s $19.8 million bond debt and replenish the endowment, which will place the museum on a firm financial basis for the future.

The sale of the other works of art will be finalized and announced in the coming months. No works of art acquired through gift or bequest will be sold.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

William Holman Hunt (English, 1827-1910), 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil,' completed in 1868 and based on a scene from a John Keats poem. The Delaware Art Museum has consigned the painting to auction at Christie's.
William Holman Hunt (English, 1827-1910), ‘Isabella and the Pot of Basil,’ completed in 1868 and based on a scene from a John Keats poem. The Delaware Art Museum has consigned the painting to auction at Christie’s.