The U.K.'s arts minister has placed a temporary export ban on a monumental 18th-century painting by Francesco Guardi to allow time for a buyer to come up with enough money to keep the work in Britain.

Formerly in the collection of the Guinness family, of brewing fame, the painting has been deemed to be of "outstanding aesthetic importance" by a reviewing committee.

A Grand Tour-era masterpiece, Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon sold for a record artist price of £26.7m to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby's in London last July.