# The Bouchardon Bust: GBP 5 in 1930, Export Barred in 2026 > Highland Council bought a Bouchardon for GBP 5 and is selling it privately. The state asks GBP 3,135,090, and the museum that objected to the export is now the buyer. > The Study - 2026-08-02 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/bouchardon-bust-invergordon-export-bar-2026/ ## Key points - The only price in the bust's documented history that any record verifies is the GBP 5 an Invergordon burgh treasurer entered in his ledger on 14 January 1930. - The export deferral price of GBP 3,135,090 is a composite that includes the cost of a marble replica, and no published document separates the object from the copy. - Full Council struck out the one clause that would have given the community 20 per cent of any future resale uplift, on the ground that it was legally unenforceable. - The volunteer museum that objected to the export licence is now the accepted buyer, and the council and Arts Council England publish deadlines about two months apart. ## Nobody kept the paperwork, and the object outlived its file ## Private sale won because private paid more, and the agent was paid by the buyer ## The bust was never accessioned, and that is the whole of the ethical defence ## Full Council removed the clause that would have kept a share of the upside ## Two arms of the same process publish different deadlines The five pounds in the burgh ledger and the GBP 3,135,090 in the departmental notice are the two ends of this chain, and only the first is a price anyone can check. Everything between them is a private negotiation conducted on the public's behalf and withheld from it: a buyer nobody will name, a sum the seller will not state, a replica whose cost is folded into the figure a British museum is asked to match, and a deadline that two arms of the same process give two months apart. The bust is still in a Highland Council store. The record of what is being done with it exists in full, in committee papers, a treasurer's ledger, a sheriff court application and a rolling list on an arts council website that almost nobody reads. Anyone writing about this object in 2027 will find that the press coverage stops on 30 April 2026 and the documents do not. ## Questions **Is there a hammer price for the Bouchardon bust?** No. The disposal was structured as a private sale on Sotheby's advice, so there is no saleroom result and no buyer's premium. The only public figure is the export deferral price of GBP 3,135,090, a negotiated total that also carries the cost of a replica and is quoted separately from GBP 620,000 of VAT. **Does the export bar cancel the council's sale?** No. It defers the decision on the licence and gives a UK buyer time to match the price. Highland Council's decision to sell, taken by full Council on 27 June 2024 and approved by Tain Sheriff Court in November 2024, stands either way. What the bar changes is who ends up owning the bust and where it goes. **Could the sale cost Highland Council its museum accreditation?** The council's papers say no, because the bust was never accessioned into Inverness Museum and Art Gallery or any other collection it runs. The comparison drawn in those papers is Northampton, whose museum lost accreditation for five years after an accessioned Egyptian statue was sold in 2014, against Kensington and Chelsea, whose 2019 sale of a non-core Joseph Wright of Derby was approved by the Museums Association. **What happens if the Invergordon museum cannot raise the money?** On the mechanics set out in the council's own report, the deferral lapses, the export licence is granted and the sale to the overseas buyer completes. Nothing in the published record obliges the museum to succeed, or the council to wait beyond the second deferral period. ## Sources - [1] Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Baroness Twycross, press release, 'Historically Significant 18th Century Sculpture at risk of leaving the UK', 9 January 2026. Source for the dimensions, inscriptions, published provenance, all three Waverley criteria, the recommended price of GBP 3,135,090 plus VAT of GBP 620,000, the statement that the price includes the replica, the first deferral to 8 April 2026 and the five-month second deferral, and the quoted statement by Stuart Lochhead. - [2] Arts Council England, 'Summary of items currently under temporary export deferral', page dated 3 July 2026. Source for the second deferral period of 1 December 2026, the confirmed price of GBP 3,135,090 plus VAT of GBP 620,000, and the other cases currently under deferral. - [3] The Highland Council, Easter Ross Area Committee, 30 October 2023, report ERA/27/23, 'Invergordon Common Good Fund - the bust of Sir John Gordon by Edme Bouchardon', by the Executive Chief Officer, Performance and Governance, author Sara Murdoch. Source for the 1930 burgh minutes and treasurer's ledger entry, the common good assessment, the non-accession at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Sotheby's forty-year relationship and fee waiver, the offer in excess of GBP 2.5m, the public and private sale pros and cons, the Northampton and Kensington and Chelsea case studies, the 2012 Bouchardon and 2023 Canova comparanda, and the deferral mechanics. - [4] The Highland Council, Black Isle and Easter Ross Area Committee, 13 May 2024, report BIER-10-24, 'Invergordon Common Good Fund - consultation on the proposal to dispose, by sale, of the bust of Sir John Gordon by Edme Bouchardon', with Appendix 1 analysis and Appendix 2 representations and responses. Source for the consultation dates and the 68 representations split 48 for, 19 against and one comment, the Factum Arte replica and its estimated cost, the inalienability finding, and the verbatim representations of Saltburn and Westwood Community Council and Invergordon Community Council with the council's replies. - [5] The Highland Council, 'Bust of Sir John Gordon by Bouchardon: Decision'. Source for the area committee's recommendations of 13 May 2024, including the 20 per cent resale uplift, and for the full Council decision of 27 June 2024 approving them subject to the removal of recommendation iv. d) as legally unenforceable. - [6] The Highland Council, news release, 'Black Isle and Easter Ross Area Committee approve Common Good budgets and updates', 26 January 2026. Source for the Invergordon Common Good Fund 2024/25 surplus of GBP 2,138, the GBP 305,000 revaluation of the bust, total reserves of GBP 2,975,280 including heritage assets, and the planned 2026/27 surplus of GBP 900. - [7] Steven McKenzie, BBC News, 'Objection to overseas sale of council's 2.5m bust', 8 August 2025. Source for Invergordon Museum's export objection, the committee hearing held the previous month, the Kindeace auction of 1930, Rob Gibson's 2014 account that the records were disposed of in local government reorganisation, and Maxine Smith's rediscovery of the bust at Balintore in 1998. - [8] Andrew Thomson and Jennifer Bowey, BBC News, "'Serious buyer' for council's 3.1m marble bust", 30 April 2026. Source for Highland Council's acceptance of a serious offer, its refusal to name the buyer under a confidentiality agreement, its refusal to state the sum, the five months allowed to raise the funds, and Invergordon Naval Museum and Heritage Centre's confirmation that it is behind the bid. - [9] Jane Bradley, The Scotsman, 'National Galleries of Scotland rules out buying 3m bust barred from leaving UK', 13 January 2026. Source for the quoted statement by a National Galleries of Scotland spokeswoman and for National Museums Scotland declining to comment. - [10] Hector MacKenzie, Ross-shire Journal, 'Temporary export ban on extraordinary 3.1m bust of Sir John Gordon of Invergordon bought for a fiver', 10 January 2026. Cited for local coverage of the deferral and for the misprinted price of GBP 3,135,90, which differs by a digit from the departmental notice and the Arts Council England list. - [11] Philip Murray, Ross-shire Journal, 'Bouchardon bust sale plan by Highland Council is approved at Tain Sheriff Court in Ross-shire', 17 November 2024. Cited for the date of the reported court approval. The court's own interlocutor has not been consulted and should replace this citation. - [12] Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 'This Forgotten Sculpture Was Used as a Doorstop in a Scotland Shed', 18 November 2024. A secondary account, cited only for the dates it gives for the loans to the Musee du Louvre in 2016 and the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2017; the council's papers record both loans without dating them, and the exhibition catalogues should replace this citation.