A rare painting has been returned to its former home in East Sussex as part of a campaign to restore its artist’s studio 100 years after it was built.
Flowers in a Jar by Duncan Grant and George Bergen will be on public display at Charleston, a gathering point for some of the 20th Century’s most radical artists.
The painting spent more than four decades in private collections before resurfacing earlier this year, when it sold for eight times its estimate at Gorringe’s auction house in Lewes.
The painting’s return to Charleston has been made possible by individual donors and a government fund to help regional museums acquire objects relating to the arts.
Nathaniel Hepburn MBE, director and chief executive of Charleston, said: “Bringing this painting back to Charleston is a moving and important moment.
“It reunites us with a work that Duncan Grant lived with every day and adds a rare example of collaboration to our collection.”
He also thanked the Arts Council England.
Flowers in a Jar, created during the period of Grant and Bergen’s love affair, stands as a record of Grant’s personal and artistic relationship with the Russian painter.
The painting’s return also comes as Charleston launches Studio 100, a campaign to raise £250,000 for essential repairs and sustainability upgrades.
Mr Hepburn said the campaign could “conserve the studio itself and safeguard its legacy for generations to come”.