A rare early 17th-century oil sketch by Peter Paul Rubens, Cimon Falling in Love with Efigenia (c. 1616–17), has been placed under a temporary export bar in a bid to keep the masterpiece within the UK. Valued at £8.4 million, the small yet electrifying work is a preparatory study for a larger painting now housed in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum. The sketch offers a candid glimpse into Rubens’ artistic process—stripped of studio polish and alive with instinctual energy.

Announced by Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant, the deferral allows UK institutions until 15 September 2025 to raise the funds necessary to secure the work. A possible six-month extension could follow, should a serious acquisition attempt arise. The 29.8 x 43.5 cm oil-on-panel piece is praised for its “outstanding aesthetic importance” and value to the study of Baroque preparatory methods.

The artwork, once held in the York House collection of George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, boasts a rich provenance that connects it directly to the legacy of British collecting. Mark Hallett of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art noted: “This is Rubens working with raw creative power—no assistants, no refinements, just the artist and the canvas. It would be a cultural loss if it left the UK.”

The subject, drawn from Boccaccio’s Decameron, depicts the brutish Cimon enraptured by the sleeping Efigenia—a pivotal narrative moment rendered with luminous brushwork and psychological charge. The composition vibrates with the sensuality and movement that made Rubens a titan of the Flemish Baroque.

This sketch not only showcases Rubens’ command of form and feeling but also reflects the humanistic ambition of an artist who straddled diplomacy and devotion, workshop precision and painterly spontaneity. The panel is in strong condition and carries a lineage from Jeremias Wildens, son of Jan Wildens, Rubens’ collaborator, through to 19th-century collectors such as Baron Berwick.

As Britain faces the prospect of losing yet another cultural treasure, Sir Chris Bryant urges national museums and donors to act: “This is Rubens at his most inventive—a masterful sketch that deserves to be seen by the public.”

Interested institutions should contact the Reviewing Committee by the set deadline.