Oxford's Ashmolean Museum has spent 2.4m on a painting by Titian, a record auction price for a portrait by the master.
The Portrait of Giacomo Doria, bought at Christie's, came from the collection of the South African diamond magnate, Sir Harold Wernher.
The rare half-length portrait, dated between 1530 and 1545, was bought with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and the Friends of the Ashmolean. Director of the Ashmolean, Dr Christopher Brown, said: "We are thrilled to acquire this major portrait by one of the greatest of all Western painters.
"Although we have an important group of Venetian 16th century paintings, there has been nothing until now by Titian, the most important of them all."
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