UK places export bar on £15m Veronese drawing

A Veronese drawing has fetched £15.4m, making it one of the most expensive works on paper ever sold. On 29 March a UK export licence was deferred, to allow a UK buyer to match the price. The preparatory drawing of Venice Triumphant (around 1581) was an experimental composition for the Apotheosis paintings in the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, the grandest state room in the Doge’s Palace. Veronese drew it on varnished paper, probably so that he could trace the architectur