The Duke of Northumberland agreed to sell a Raphael to the Getty for £35 million, and the government blocked it

Henry Percy, 11th Duke of Northumberland, died in London on 31 October 1995, aged 42 and unmarried, of heart failure after an amphetamine overdose^†. His younger brother Ralph became the 12th Duke and head of Northumberland Estates, about 100,000 acres with Alnwick Castle, Syon House and Albury Park. At Alnwick hung a small Madonna long thought a copy. In 1991 the National Gallery curator Nicholas Penny identified it as Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks, and the family lent it to the Gallery. In September 2002 the Duke agreed through Sotheby's to sell it to the Getty Museum for £35 million. The government's Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art blocked the export. The National Gallery bought it in March 2004 for £22 million from the 10th Duke of Northumberland's Wills Trust, with £11.5 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £10.5 million from an endowment given by John Paul Getty Jr. In 2012 a culvert the estate was responsible for failed and flooded homes in Newburn, and in 2014 the estate planned a £15 million art sale to cover the bill^†. In 2015 the estate ended a century-old allotment lease in Hounslow to build flats; the Planning Inspectorate refused the plan in 2023. In 2026 the 12th Duke, ranked worth £509 million in 2024, still owns Alnwick; his heir is George, Earl Percy.