An 1862 painting of London's Richmond Hill by Hudson River School artist Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900) has had its export license deferred for the second time in 13 years. Microsoft executive Christopher Larson, from Seattle, bought the painting for a record £1.5 million at Bonhams in 1999. He was forced to leave the Cropsey in his London residence after an export license was banned.

Considered to be one of a handful of paintings to reflect the influence of British art on the Hudson River School, the painting was first sold by Cropsey for £472 to pay off debts he had amassed while living in London.

Larson, the painting's current American owner, is getting a divorce and the couple's art collection is being divided. One of them has applied for the export license, and the painting's value has now risen to £4.95 million plus VAT.

Another famous Hudson River School artist, Frederic Church (1826-1900), the subject of an upcoming National Gallery exhibition in London, has also been banned from export.

In 1979, Church’s Arctic masterwork The Icebergs sold at auction for $2.5 million, two and half times the highest hammer price achieved for an American painting up to that time. Now in the Dallas Museum of Art, the painting was also caught up in an export controversy when it was sold by Manchester City Council through Sotheby’s New York.

Ironically, Church’s now-iconic Icebergs found no buyers when he first offered it. The Civil War was looming in America. He used his status as a celebrity-artist to connect with an international buyer, the wealthy British railroad magnate Edward William Watkin (1819–1901). The Icebergs then dropped from sight, its whereabouts unknown. After hanging in a seldom-used stairwell at Watkin’s estate outside of Manchester between 1865 and 1979, the painting’s rediscovery and subsequent auction made headlines. The purchasers, private collectors from Texas, immediately gifted the work to the Dallas Museum of Art, and ultimately, the painting returned to the U.S. to hang in the museum.