Portrait of John Donne for Sale

British Poet Laureate Andrew Motion is leading the charge to raise money to help the British National Portrait Gallery buy a rare painted portrait of metaphysical poet John Donne. Trouble is, they need £1.6 million. The London Telegraph quotes Motion as saying: “It is cheap at the price and if we don’t buy it somebody else will and that will be somebody else overseas. If that happens it will be a catastrophe.”

Ted Genoways is the editor of VQR.