Arts minister leads calls to keep £56k Lady Chatterley’s Lover copy in UK
Arts minister Michael Ellis has led calls to prevent a copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover worth more than £56,000 from leaving the UK.
Ellis has issued a temporary export ban on an annotated copy of D.H. Lawrence’s controversial novel, which was used by the judge who presided over its infamous obscenity trial.
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The sexually-explicit novel, first published privately in the 1920s, was at the centre of a landmark criminal trial in 1960 when publisher Penguin Books decided to release the uncensored version in a bid to test newly-introduced obscenity laws.
The copy in question was owned by judge Sir Laurence Byrne and contains annotations and two pages of notes made by Byrne’s wife Dorothy in preparation for the case, which Penguin won in what is now considered a coup for artistic freedoms.
But the historic book is now at risk of being exported from the UK unless a buyer can be found to stump up the £56,250 asking price.
“The trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover captured the public attention in 1960,” said Ellis. “It was a watershed moment in cultural history, when Victorian ideals were overtaken by a more modern attitude.”
“I hope that a buyer can be found to keep this important part of our nation’s history in the UK,” he added.
The calls come after the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA), which advises the government on whether cultural objects are of national importance, recommended the book should not be allowed to leave the UK.
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“It would be more than sad, it would be a misfortune, if this last surviving ‘witness’ left our shores,” said RCEWA chairman Sir Hayden Phillips.
The decision on whether the copy will be granted an export licence has been deferred until August, and could be further deferred if a serious bid is made to purchase it.