Protecting our shared cultural treasures: the Reviewing Committee in action

The RCEWA Annual Report for 2024-25 is now live – read below for more information on their work over the past year and the unique objects they considered.

In 1829, 11-year-old local schoolgirl Mary Anne Hughes began stitching a needlework sampler of Thomas Telford’s Menai suspension bridge. Nearly 200 years later, could she have imagined that her work itself would be suspended between an international buyer and her hometown’s museum, Storiel? 

And what about the boats shown in the foreground of her embroidery, sailing west out of the Menai Straits? They may have been carrying goods from Bangor to destinations far and wide. 

Metaphors aside, Mary Anne’s work is a reminder that people and objects have always been on the move. Today, the UK’s international art trade – the biggest in Europe – continues that movement. It plays a major role in sharing our country’s rich history, culture, and art with the world. 

But this raises an important point: when something culturally significant leaves the UK for good, it rarely comes back. Each item that goes overseas can leave a small but lasting gap in our shared story. That’s why it’s so important to strike a balance between supporting a thriving art trade and protecting the heritage that connects us all.

The Waverley criteria 

Just over a century ago, the UK faced a similar challenge. Gainsborough’s famous Blue Boy (c.1770) was sold to an American collector and, with no legal means to protect it, the painting left the country. It was then that the reality of losing an important piece of cultural heritage really began to sink in.  

A period of reflection led to the Waverley Report, followed by the creation of the Waverley criteria and the Reviewing Committee in 1952. In short, when a cultural item is referred to the RCEWA by National museum experts sourced by the Arts Council, they ask three questions: 

• Is it closely connected with our history and national life?
• Is it of outstanding aesthetic importance?
• Is it of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history? 

If the object meets one or more of the criteria, the RCEWA recommends to the Secretary of State that a temporary export deferral is placed on the item. This gives UK museums or private sources (partnered with a public institution) time to express interest in acquiring it for public benefit and to raise the money needed to purchase it at the fair market value.  

The RCEWA performs an invaluable service as the last line of defence in protecting cultural heritage from export. Its committee members draw on their shared expertise, along with input from independent specialists, to identify national treasures and assess whether losing them would be a misfortune – ensuring one final chance to keep these important objects in the UK. 

Our new RCEWA 2024/25 Annual Report shows that to date six items worth over £500,000 have already been secured through this process - preserving them for future public access in the UK.  

The RCEWA Annual Report also reports on objects which were deferred but not acquired by a UK buyer. In these cases, objects are entitled to receive an export licence and can leave the country. This balances the need to protect the UK’s cultural heritage with the support needed to keep the UK’s world-class Art Trade competitive and successful. 

Let’s take a look at some of the items saved for nation in this year’s Annual Report:  

• Alan Turing’s top secret Delilah Project working papers (1943-1945): The RCEWA considered these papers to be a rare and important collection from one of the nation’s most influential scientists working on the wartime Delilah Project – as well as potentially the only surviving manuscript in Turing’s own hand. The papers were acquired after deferral by King’s College, Cambridge with support from Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, trading firm XTX Markets, and King’s College.  
• Iron Age coin found in UK soil reveals new ruler: A coin found in the soil of Test Valley, Hampshire, sheds new light onto our shared history and heritage. The RCEWA considered the coin ripe for further research on the history of Britain, as it contains one of the earliest inscribed names found and may give further contextual information to existing Iron Age coins. The coin’s export was deferred, and it was eventually acquired by the British Museum with support from Tim Wright. 
• Needlework of Menai Bridge, Wales by 11 year old Mary Anne Hughes (1829): This fine needlework was made to mark the opening of Thomas Telford’s suspension bridge over the Menai Straits, with steamships and boats visible in the contemporary scene. The RCEWA noted its outstanding connection with our history and national life and its outstanding significance to the study of social history within this area of Wales, and as a window into the world of early nineteenth century working class education and female accomplishment in Britain. The needlework was acquired after deferral by Storiel, Bangor, with support from Friends of Storiel and Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund. 

And so we close with Mary Anne’s needlework returning far closer to home than perhaps we, or she, would ever have imagined. As the Menai Bridge still stands today towering over the local landscape, the needlework stands testament to the importance of cultural objects in telling our national story. 

Make sure you read the RCEWA Annual Report.