Will Tate pay millions for this Leighton?

Tate is hoping to buy Lord Leighton’s masterpiece, “The Syracusan bride”. The massive canvas (detail above) is 13 feet long and depicts a bride leading wild beasts in procession to the Temple of Diana to propitiate the goddess. Painted in 1866, the painting went to the US in the 1960s and is currently owned by an Australian couple, John and Julie Schaeffer. Based in Sydney, they have a major collection of Victorian art. The price of the Leighton is believed to be several million pounds.