Minister fights to save photograph

Culture minister Margaret Hodge (pictured) has made an attempt to save a rare photograph from being sold outside of the country.

Pasha and Bayadere is an image by acclaimed 19th century photographer Roger Fenton and Ms Hodge has put a temporary export bar on any outside bidders in the hope that funds can be raised to keep it within UK shores.

Working with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, it is viewed by many people in the cultural heritage sector that the photograph is of 'outstanding aesthetic importance and of outstanding significance for the study of the history of photography'.

Lord Inglewood, chairman of the Reviewing Committee, said: 'Photography is sometimes undervalued in this country, but Pasha and Bayadere demonstrates how the best photographs can hold their own aesthetically against other art forms.

'The fact that the Getty Museum chose to make their own version of this image the subject of a scholarly monograph shows just how highly Fenton's work is regarded outside the UK.'