The Ashmolean has raised the money needed to acquire a major painting by JMW Turner.

Following the launch, in June, of a public appeal, the Ashmolean Museum has received an extraordinary response from members of the public donating money towards the acquisition of Turner’s painting of 1810, The High Street, Oxford. Supporters have sent in over £60,000, helping the museum reach the fundraising target in just four weeks. 

The High Street, Oxford (1810), which has been on loan to the museum from a private collection since 1997, is Turner's only full size townscape in oils. Over the summer, the painting will remain on display in the Welcome Space on the museum’s ground floor, and twelve full-size reproductions will also be installed around the city.

Dr Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean: “The Museum has been overwhelmed by public support. With well over 800 people contributing to the appeal, it is clear that the local community, as well as visitors to the Museum from across the world, feel that this picture, the greatest painting of the city ever made, must remain on show in a public museum in Oxford.

“We are so grateful to the members of the public who have made donations; to the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund; and to the Friends and Patrons of the Museum. There are big plans for the painting once we acquire it. It will be lent to regional museums so as many people as possible from the surrounding area will be able to see it; it will be at the heart of a new series of educational activities for schools and young people; and, not least, it will have pride of place in the Museum’s Nineteenth Century Gallery which will be refurbished and reopened in early 2016.”