At an auction at Sotheby's in London last week, U.S. Collector Charles B. Wrightsman bought for $392,000 the Duke and Duchess of Leeds's portrait by Goya of the first Duke of Wellington. The auctioneer's gavel had hardly banged for the last time when a group of Tory M.P.s started a campaign to prevent Wrightsman from getting an export licenseĀand that could mean, as it has with other purchasers, that Wrightsman might have to wait months before the government decides whether he can take his painting home, or must resell it in Britain at some vague "fair price." The British are getting...
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